The third afternoon of racing at Royal Ascot was delivered over a rain-sodden course officially listed as soft, but that didn’t stop Stradivarius from delivering a third straight victory in the Group 1 Gold Cup. Trained by John Gosden and ridden by Frankie Dettori , Stradivarius recorded his fourth career win at the Royal meeting, having won the Queen’s Vase in 2017.
The 6-year-old Sea The Stars horse joins Sagaro (1975, 1976, 1977) as a triple Gold Cup winner with only four-time scorer Yeats (2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010) having won the two and a half mile staying showpiece more.
Mid-pack for most of the 2 1/2-mile journey, Dettori swung Stradivarius four-wide coming into the final stretch. Under a confident ride early in the straight, Stradivarius responded immediately to Dettori’s urging in the final furlong and pulled away to win by an impressive 10 lengths.
The numbers backed up the pictures from Stradivarius’ visually stunning performance to land a third consecutive Gold Cup. Showing his customary acceleration despite the slow ground, Stradivarius closed out the marathon trip in 39.93 seconds across the final three furlongs with a top speed of 35.3 mph in the final furlong. By contrast, the next best Nayef Road was 42.50 seconds through the last three furlongs hitting the line at 30.8 mph.
“For a horse to do that, I mean Sagaro was trained by a great friend of mine, Francois Boutin, and ridden by Lester Piggott,” said Gosden. “I remember watching all his races and he was something. Yeats was a phenomenon. To have a horse mentioned in that bracket is what it is all about. We are very proud to have won the race three times and it is great for the owner-breeder Bjorn Nielsen. He is passionate about his breeding and broodmares. He has been trying to breed a Derby winner, but he has got a very good Gold Cup horse. For him, it is profoundly fulfilling for him as much as it is for us – it is a pity he can’t be here today.
Dettori, who had now won the Gold Cup eight times (Lester Piggott holds the record number of Gold Cup wins, 11) said: “Tremendous. I was about the rain; they were talking about the Martyn Meade horse [Technician] a lot , it was a concern, and he actually really surprised me because he went like a hot knife through butter, really. I had everybody covered by the four, then was surprised that I didn’t have anyone to challenge me. It is always a scary moment when you get to the furlong marker whether you will pick up or not, but he did and stretched away by 10.”
A virtuoso performance from Stradivarius as he becomes only the third horse in history to win a hat-trick of Gold Cups! #RoyalAscot pic.twitter.com/ytlfPfWp9c
In the first race of the day, Highland Chief won the 10-furlong Golden Gates Handicap to give jockey Rossa Ryan a first Royal winner. It was also a first Royal Ascot success for a training partnership, permitted by the BHA since the resumption of racing on June 1, with Paul and Oliver Cole being responsible for handling Highland Chief. Paul Cole trained 21 Royal Ascot winners when solely responsible for the training licence.
Referring to the fact that he now shares the licence with his father Paul, Oliver said: “As the expression goes, if it’s not broken, why try to fix it? We have got some good horses and we are very lucky to have them.
”Sadly, my father is at his best friend’s funeral today [Ben Leigh], which is why he didn’t come. I did say to him today I thought we’d get an Ascot winner.”
Jockey James Doyle bagged his third winner of the week as he superbly delivered the Roger Varian-trained Mountain Angel up the inside to comfortably take the day’s second race, the Listed Wolferton Stakes over 10 furlongs.
Regarding the week as he has had so far, Doyle said: “You have to enjoy it. It is obviously a bit, well a lot, different from what we are used to here. I was watching the replays back last night and it all seemed a bit quiet. It is nice to ride a winner to try and liven things up a little bit! I am not Frankie, unfortunately, but it is nice to be standing here!”
Jockey Jim Crowley is enjoying a Royal Ascot to remember, and he recorded his fifth winner of the week when Molatham landed the G3 Jersey Stakes over seven furlongs by half a length from Monarch Of Egypt after a sustained battle. It was a double for trainer Roger Varian, and like all of Crowley’s four previous winners this week, Molatham is owned by Hamdan Al Maktoum, to whom Crowley is retained jockey.
“I had six winners at Royal Ascot coming into this,” said Crowley. “I am not complaining though. When you are a jockey, you take one for the meeting, so to get five is great. I am very lucky to ride such nice horses and for such a big operation.”
The fourth race of the day saw a royal pedigree deliver in the listed Chesham Stakes: the first foal out of Arc de Triomphe winner (2016), Breeders’ Cup Turf winner (2015) and multi-millionaire Found made his way to the Royal Ascot winner’s circle with a 2 1/2 length victory. A 2-year-old son of War Front, Battleground was ridden by Ryan Moore for trainer Aidan O’Brien.
”Battleground is an exciting horse – he could be anything,” O’Brien said. “He could be one for the July Meeting or the National Stakes. I would imagine he would stay well and probably a mile will be his trip. Found got a mile and a half, but he is by War Front and that is a big influence for speed.”
Battleground was bred to be special – and he looked just that in the Chesham Stakes
Post time: Feb-03-2021