Highly accurate bending force presetting is a prerequisite to ensure the well flatness of the strip head, however, there are limitations in the preset model used in industrial sites. According to the flatness control characteristics of work roll and intermediate roll bending forces, this paper integrates the historical production data of a 1420 mm 6-high tandem cold rolling mill and establishes a chain model of bending force preset based on symbolic regression, which implements with age-layered population structure genetic programming (ALPS-GPSR). The advantage of symbolic regression models is the ability to obtain explicit mathematical expressions, which is very important in complex industrial production environments. With the application of ALPS-GPSR based bending force preset model in the industrial site, the hit rate of flatness within 6IU in the strip head for three specifications of the strip has increased by 2.86%, 1.61%, and 2.19% respectively on average, achieving a satisfactory result.