'A law unto itself' - Keith Melrose on what makes the Coral Trophy unique

The course and distance of the Coral Trophy is one of the most famous in jump racing. Three miles around Kempton will always be associated with the King George VI Chase, one of the sport's great races.

Racing fans should understand races like the Coral Trophy as implicitly as we understand the effect of Cheltenham's hill or Tattenham Corner. But we don't, not really. It is rare that we get to see big fields of chasers running at Kempton. Sure, Kauto Star could float around here and streak away as though he had just joined in. We get little chance to see how mere handicappers deal with the sharpest of jump racing's major tracks.

Since 2010, there have been 156 three-mile chases at Kempton, containing 1,288 horses. Runners in the Coral Trophy account for more than 15 per cent of the total. Put another way, the average field size for a three-mile chase at Kempton, excluding the Coral Trophy, is 7.7 horses. The average in this race is nearly double (13.6), which makes it something of a law unto itself.