IN a wonderful piece of prescience, the most recent edition of Mark Johnston’s Kingsley Klarion had a feature on the Group 2 Royal Lodge Stakes at Newmarket. Thanks to this I was saved a great deal of research!

The trainer and his team were looking forward to the race, one which they had already bagged on three occasions. The race, thanks to the Klarion writer, was established in 1946 and is named after a royal residence situated in Windsor Great Park. It was originally run at Ascot, but has endured a number of other changes too, extended from five furlongs to a mile, and in 1987 being restricted to colts and geldings.