Norfolk Stakes Tips & Betting Offers

Norfolk Stakes Preview: Tips, Betting Offers and Odds

It’s a fast and furious start to day four at Royal Ascot as the two year olds take to the track in the Norfolk Stakes. Here we provide our betting tips and highlight the best odds and offers available.

First run at the track in 1843, this 5f Group 2 contest now offers £70,000 in total prize money and whilst it might not be one of the biggest races at Royal Ascot, it’s a classy affair none the less.

Previous Race Winners

2019 – A’Ali – jockey Frankie Dettori, trainer Simon Crisford
2018 – Shang Shang Shang – jockey Joel Rosario, trainer Wesley Ward
2017 – Sioux Nation – jockey Ryan Moore, trainer Aidan O’Brien
2016 – Prince Of Lir – jockey Luke Morris, trainer Robert Cowell
2015 – Waterloo Bridge – jockey Ryan Moore, trainer Aidan O’Brien
2014 – Baitha Alga – jockey Frankie Dettori, trainer Richard Hannon, Jr.
2013 – No Nay Never – jockey Joel Rosario, trainer Wesley Ward
2012 – Reckless Abandon – jockey Adam Kirby, trainer Clive Cox
2011 – Bapak Chinta – jockey Philip Makin, trainer Kevin Ryan
2010 – Approve – jockey Eddie Aherne , trainer William Haggas
2009 – Radiohead – jockey Jamie Spencer, trainer Brian Meehan
2008 – South Central – jockey Robert Winston, trainer Howard Johnson
2007 – Winker Watson – jockey Jimmy Fortune, trainer Peter Chapple-Hyam
2006 – Dutch Art – jockey Alan Munro, trainer Peter Chapple-Hyam

Norfolk Stakes History

One of the oldest juvenile contests of the flat racing season, this race went by the name of the New Stakes for the first 130 years of its life, before being renamed in honour of Bernard Fitzalan-Howard 16th Duke of Norfolk in 1973. The event was granted Group 2 status in 2006 and has thrown up a number of notable winners in its history.

There were many notable winners in the first century of the race with no fewer than eight progressing to win the Epsom Derby in their three year old campaign, including Galopin, Isinglass, and Hyperion. The winners here have tended to stick to sprint trips in more recent times but it still takes a pretty smart performer to prevail.

Irish maestro Aidan O’Brien won this for the second time in 2015, but it is his 2001 hero who must go down as one of the best recent winners here. Johannesburg was simply unstoppable in his juvenile campaign, being unbeaten in all seven starts. With a win here and Group 1 triumphs in the Phoenix Stakes, Prix Morny, Middle Park Stakes and Breeders Cup Juvenile, he was unsurprisingly crowned the best two year old in Europe that year. The best two year old doesn’t always make the best three year old however and the precocious Johannesburg never won again after his debut season.

12 years on in 2013 and Johnanesburg makes another appearance in the history of the race, this time as the grandsire of the winner, No Nay Never. Wesley Ward’s American raider dwarfed his rivals in stature and put the completion in his shadow here before going on to land the Prix Morny for a famous European double.

Whilst the winner here has on occasion proved much too good for the rest, this tends to be a closely fought affair featuring a tight finish. It has only once been so tight that the judge couldn’t split them however, when Delirium and My Babu dead heated in 1947.

Top Trainers and Best Jockeys

We have a four way tie for the best training record in the race, with Mathew Dawson, James Ryan, John Porter and Atty Perse all recording four wins.

Anyone looking through the record books for these Royal Ascot contests will likely notice a common theme when it comes to the jockeys. With nine wins between 1961 and 1992, it is once again the legendary Lester Piggott who has won this race more than any other.