Run on the same card as the Lancashire Oaks at Haydock Park, while the top-class Eclipse Stakes is staged elsewhere at Sandown, the Old Newton Cup is one of the top betting handicap races of the year on the flat and attracts very competitive fields every year.

Worth some £100,000, carrying Class 2 status and run over a mile-and-a-half, the Old Newton Cup was first run as a mammoth four-mile race way back in 1807. In the modern-day, it attracts the sort of well-handicapped middle-distance horses who also contend races at Glorious Goodwood, Royal Ascot, and later York’s Ebor meeting.

Past popular winners of the Cup include Glide Path (twice), Collier Hill, Alkaased, Dangerous Midge, Notarised, and Dylan Mouth.

Many winners of this race tend to be very well backed, huge public gambles not being unusual in the contest as the punters tend to get behind one or two particularly well-fancied types each year.