Attentions turn to Glorious Goodwood this week for five days of top-class Flat action.
Now the dust has settled on a brilliant King George weekend at Ascot, racing fans can look forward to three Group 1s, in the Goodwood Cup, Sussex Stakes and Nassau Stakes, headlining each one of the opening three days respectively.
The meeting isn't short on intriguing handicaps either, with the Golden Mile and Stewards' Cup set to be ran on Thursday and Friday.
We take a look at five things to keep an eye on ahead of this week...
Aidan O'Brien's form
After 12 Group 1 wins in 2026 alone, you'd been forgiven for thinking that all is rosy up at Ballydoyle, but the yard is currently going through a bit of a wobble.
These stories seem to crop up every so often, only for the O'Brien team to fire in a multitude of winners shortly after, however, this dip in form does seem to be fairly stark.
Last week, the racing gurus at Timeform had O'Brien's 'Run to Form' percentage at its lowest by at least 5% since they introduced the metric in 2012; not ideal when leading up to one of the most competitive festivals in the calendar.
Over the last two weeks, the yard is operating at an 11% strike-rate and has had favourites beaten at 30/100, 4/5, 1/3 and 4/9.
Bow Echo's attempt at a perfect six
Down the years the Sussex Stakes has been won by some of racing's superstars and Wednesday's renewal presents Bow Echo with an opportunity to take another step towards greatness.
Frankel made it eight wins in eight career in this very contest back in 2011 and a repeat result for Bow Echo will take him to six without tasting defeat.
He won't have it easy, however. Opera Ballo and Gstaad are very worthy opposition, but the race should produce the kind of setup he needs to produce a real top-class performance.
Scandinavia v Trawlerman II
The spectacle served up by Scandinavia and Trawlerman in the Ascot Gold Cup remains one of the highlights of the season so far and Tuesday's Goodwood Cup provides the perfect opportunity for the rematch.
It was O'Brien's stayer who came out on top after an attritional battle up the home straight, prevailing by a head in a pulsating finish.
Trawlerman -- expected to don his rather peculiar ski goggles in the prelims -- is bidding to wrestle the crown away from the defending champion and add the Goodwood Cup to his glittering staying CV.
Amo's riding arrangements
Although David Egan remains Amo's number one jockey, Kia Joorabchian's enterprise are adopting a 'best available' policy for big races.
It saw ex-retained rider Rossa Ryan get the leg up on Power Blue for his Group 2 victory in the Minstrel Stakes last weekend and there is likely to be more shuffling of the deck this week.
Egan is down to ride a handful of Amo runners -- including Pikachu in the Vintage Stakes -- but it remains to be seen how their riding arrangements will pan out for the remainder of the festival.
Loughnane & Murphy's championship battle
The ongoing battle between Billy Loughnane and Oisin Murphy to land the UK Flat Jockeys' Championship is a fascinating sub-plot to a week already stacked with brilliant storylines.
Young pretender Loughnane currently holds a narrow advantage over the five-time champion jockey but Murphy will not let his hat-trick bid be foiled too easily.
Wave Rider, Hatteen and Lazy Griff are just some of the bullets that the County Kerry man has to fire over the next five days and there are plenty more from where they came from.
Any odds displayed were correct at the time of writing and are subject to fluctuation.
