Pace aplenty in ultra-competitive John of Gaunt - and this young improver should thrive for the test

Seven-furlong specialists are a rare breed, yet for the first time since 2015 the John of Gaunt Stakes has attracted a double-figure field. That implies a division in a healthy state, particularly considering the race's proximity to a winnable-looking Queen Anne over an extra furlong in ten days' time.

Jumby and Pogo are well established in this discipline and have benefited from the race's failure to regularly get the numbers in recent years. They have shared the past two John of Gaunts between them. Sister races like the Hungerford Stakes, Challenge Stakes and Criterion Stakes have also gone their way.

However, the assignment at hand is tougher than normal for these two seven-furlong regulars as they meet a variety of new challengers arriving from different parishes.