This is the start of a new feature which looks back at trends since 2000 alongside horses to consider for various races at the Cheltenham Festival.

Punters might not be interested to learn how many favourites have won a certain race since 1950, though modern day results really do have a bearing on the way people think these days.

Since The Turn of the Millennium--'Supreme Novices'

Ante post tip: MONTBAZON

Alan King is one of the shrewdest trainers around and it's worth noting that Alan has saddled just one horse in this event in the last six years when Medermit finish second at 12/1 when beaten a neck in 2009.

Medermit has gone on to land Grade 1 & 2 races over the larger obstacles, whilst Alan's previous runner in this race was My Way De Solzen in 2005 who became a dual Cheltenham Festival winner.

The publication of the latest entries at the penultimate forfeit stage for the St Leger at Doncaster on September 10 barely caused a ripple in the betting for the season's final classic on Town Moor.

Indeed, the declaration of 17 horses last week for the 1m 6f contest raised the distinct possibility of a single figure field. Critics of the race will doubtless use the likelihood of a shrunken line-up as a stick to beat the race with once again, but in reality the race has suffered from a combination of injuries to horses and trainers deciding to send their runners elsewhere.

Those punters who took a price about Namibian winning the Leger after his narrow defeat of Fiorente in Goodwood's Gordon Stakes will have all but torn up their slips following the colt's heavy defeat at the hands of Sea Moon in the Great Voltigeur Stakes, but the news that he will not run again this season was a final hammer blow to his already slender chances of success.

After last week's Great Voltigeur Stakes at York, there was a big splash in the betting for the St Leger at Doncaster on September 10, with long-time market leader Seville thrashed on the Knavesmire by the rapidly improving Sea Moon, who is now as short as 5-4 favourite for the season's final classic.

Never has the market for the St Leger been as tight or as one-sided as it currently stands, and after such false favourites as Nathaniel (now seemingly likely to go for the Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe at Longchamp) and Seville fell by the wayside, the Sir Michael Stoute-trained Sea Moon surely has the race at his mercy.

In truth, Seville was always an artificially short-priced favourite for Doncaster, owing his ridiculously short odds to his trainer's reputation as much as his own achievements.

Ante-post betting on this year's Nunthorpe Stakes has been brisk, and it is hard to escape the conclusion that the market has got this year's renewal bang right by featuring Hoof It at the head of the affairs. Dig a little deeper into this year's renewal and it soon becomes apparent that there is little strength in depth to the 2011 version of York's big sprint.

There seems little point in taking 4-1 or shorter now about Hoof It who seems sure to be a similar price on the day and plenty of backers will be keeping their powder dry for the Nunthorpe and waiting until the vagaries of the draw have worked themselves out over the first two days of the Ebor meeting.

As for Hoof It's form, there is little doubt that this is where he belongs right now after blitzing a half-decent field to win the Stewards' Cup off 10-0, and his fondness for York's sharp 5f trip suggests he will be hard to beat.

The news that Frankel is likely to miss the Juddmonte International Stakes on York's opening day, August 17, and wait instead for a crack at the Queen Elizabeth 11 Stakes in mid-October is disappointing news.

The season is practically over for Cecil's superstar who now has an almost three-month gap before his next race, and it seems that plans to step the colt up in trip for a crack at his owner's big prize have been shelved for now.

The Ascot race, by contrast, is sure to be a cakewalk for Frankel who will probably frighten off what's left of the opposition to him over a mile.

In his absence Aidan O'Brien seems sure to dominate the 1m 2f Group1 event with either So You Think or Await The Dawn and both horses seem almost certain winners depending upon whichever horse O'Brien decides to send to the York Ebor festival.

The news that Deacon Blues will sidestep the Stewards' Cup on the final day of Glorious Goodwood at least simplifies one aspect of solving the puzzle presented by the Blue Square-sponsored sprint handicap.

James Fanshawe's high-class sprinter romped away with the Hackwood Stakes at Newbury and seems set for a crack at a Group 1 sprinting prize in the near future. In his absence the Fanshawe team seems likely to rely upon Mac's Power for a tilt at the cavalry charge on Goodwood's straight 6f track.

Fanshawe's charge ran a race full of promise when 'winning' his race on the wrong side in the Wokingham at Royal Ascot and a recent fair effort at Ascot has kept this one ticking over nicely for Goodwood's big sprint pot and at odds of 12-1 he seems reasonably priced.