THERE will be speed match-ups at Royal Ascot this week, Battaash and Lady Aurelia in the King’s Stand, Harry Angel and Merchant Navy in the Diamond Jubilee. Blink twice and you will miss both.

The match-up between Order Of St George and Stradivarius in the Gold Cup is a match-up of a different kind, but it is no less intriguing for all that. Indeed, you can argue that it is the match of the week. At 2/1 each of two, most bookmakers are calling.

It is the proven stamina and class against the young up-and-comer. Order Of St George is a Gold Cup winner, who would be going for a hat-trick in the race next week if the bob of the (short) head had gone the other way last year.

Aidan O’Brien’s horse has won two Irish St Legers and he has finished third and fourth in the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe.

He has proven his stamina and he has proven his class and he has proven that he can operate at Ascot. And he has looked as good as ever in his two runs this year.

Stradivarius is classy all right and he is proven at Ascot, he won the Queen’s Vase at the Royal meeting last year, but he hasn’t proven that he has Order Of St George’s talent yet. He did beat Big Orange in the Goodwood Cup last year, the same Big Orange who had just got home by a short-head from Order Of St George at Ascot five weeks earlier, but he was only third in the St Leger last year. He may not have the class to finish placed in an Arc.

Also, while John Gosden’s horse shapes as if he stays well, he has never been beyond two miles in his life. The step up to two and a half is a step into the unknown.

He may well improve, he is only four, but he does have to progress to get up to Order Of St George’s level, and the older horse should probably be clear favourite.

Ascot statscot

IT is always interesting to peruse the Royal Ascot statistics in advance of the big meeting. You can usually unearth a statistic or two that surprises you, that you didn’t really know, or that you may have known last year but just forgot, or didn’t really realise that you knew. (Like the capital city of Ivory Coast.)

Like, how many times has Aidan O’Brien been leading trainer at Royal Ascot? Eight.

Including every year for the last three years and for five of the last seven. And how many times has Ryan Moore claimed the leading rider accolade? Seven times. Seven times in the last eight years.

How many runners has Wesley Ward had at Royal Ascot? 44. And how many winners? Nine. Two in 2009, when he first had runners, and at least one every year since and including 2013.

Other Irish trainers have fantastic Royal Ascot records. Dermot Weld has had 17 Royal Ascot winners, the first Klairvimy in the King Edward VII Stakes in 1973.

Jim Bolger has had eight, instigated by Flame Of Tara in the Coronation Stakes in 1983. John Oxx has had seven, one in each of seven different races, the first Ridgewood Pearl in the Coronation Stakes in 1995.

Noel Meade has had one, David Marnane has had one, Jarlath Fahey has had one, Michael Halford has had one, Ger Lyons has had one. Michael Grassick has had two, San Sebastian in 1998 and 1999. Kevin Prendergast has had four, from Ore to Oscar Schindler, and Eddie Lynam has also had four, three in one glorious week in 2014, Sole Power and Slade Power and Anthem Alexander.

Gordon Elliott has had one, Commissioned in the Queen Alexandra Stakes in 2016, Charles Byrnes has had one, Domination in the Ascot Handicap in 2014, Michael Cunningham has had one, Cairn Rouge in the Coronation Stakes in 1980.

Willie Mullins has had five, two in the Queen Alexandra and three in the Ascot Handicap, and nearly one in the Gold Cup. Tony Martin has had two, both in the Ascot Handicap.

It’s Yamoussoukro, by the way. Not Abidjan. Tough luck if you answered Abidjan in your sixth class geography test.