On Thursday at Royal Ascot, Stradivarius bids to become the second horse to win the Gold Cup four times when he lines up for the historic feature.
Dating back to 1807, the Gold Cup – contrary to popular opinion, never officially titled the ‘Ascot Gold Cup’ – is the oldest race at the royal meeting, and it probably remains the most prestigious staying prize on the global calendar.
At 2½ miles, the storied G1 is fully a mile longer than any G1 event on the U.S. circuit, where even mile-and-a-half races such as the Belmont Stakes are regarded as marathons.
Although Stradivarius will start a hot favourite under Frankie Dettori, this week’s renewal has been enlivened by the supplementary entry of last year’s shock Derby winner Serpentine, a throwback to the days of yore when the Ascot highlight was a natural target for Epsom winners of his ilk.
Before him, Blakeney, beaten in 1970, was the most recent Derby winner to participate.
However, that’s not to say the modern era hasn’t been graced by a number of top-class horses. Here Nicholas Godfrey lists his idea of the top ten Gold Cup winners of the last 50 years.
1. Yeats (2006, 2007, 2008, 2009)
b h Sadler’s Wells - Lyndonville
Trainer: Aidan O’Brien
Jockeys: Kieren Fallon, Mick Kinane, Johnny Murtagh (2)
Owner: Sue Magnier & Diane Nagle
Career stats: 15 wins from 26 runs
Best Racing Post Rating (RPR) 126
One of the greatest stayers in the history of the sport, the only four-time Gold Cup winner was bred to be a middle-distance champion by Coolmore. It wasn’t until he was five that sights were realigned to the staying division, where his turn of foot was a potent weapon. Although he also won a pair of Goodwood Cups plus major G1 events in Ireland and France, Yeats was totally untouchable at Ascot, landing his first Gold Cup in 2006 by four lengths on his seasonal debut. The son of Sadler’s Wells won the next three with similar authority, bringing the house down as he made history with his fourth victory as an 8-year-old, coasting home under a hands-and-heels ride.
“The greatest, like Muhammad Ali, the greatest,” exclaimed jockey Johnny Murtagh. “Four Gold Cups, an unbelievable horse,” added Aidan O’Brien. That’s probably why there’s a bronze statue of him in the parade ring.
2. Stradivarius (2018, 2019, 2020)
ch h Sea The Stars - Private Life
Trainer: John Gosden
Jockey: Frankie Dettori
Owner: Bjorn Nielsen
Career stats: 17 wins from 27 runs
Best RPR 125
Nicknamed ‘Mighty Mouse’ in the Gosden yard, the pocket dynamo stands on the verge of a place in the record books as he bids to emulate Yeats with four Gold Cup victories in a row. Things seem to be getting easier at Ascot for the homebred chestnut with four white socks and a white blaze. Having won his first Gold Cup in game fashion from multiple G1 winner Vazirabad in 2018, he spared Frankie Dettori’s blushes 12 months later by getting him out of a box in the straight before last year’s ten-length romp. Also won the Queen’s Vase at Royal Ascot during his 3-year-old campaign, and already has four Goodwood Cups to his name at the age of 7.
In effect, he scuppered the £1 million bonus scheme on offer to any horse winning the Yorkshire Cup, Ascot Gold Cup, Goodwood Cup and Lonsdale Cup by achieving that unprecedented feat in both 2018 and 2019 during an incredible ten-race unbeaten streak.
3. Sagaro (1975, 1976, 1977)
ch h Espresso - Zambara
Trainer: Francois Boutin
Jockey: Lester Piggott
Owner: Gerry Oldham
Career stats: 10 wins from 24 runs
Best Timeform rating: 133
There was more than a touch of arrogant Gallic swagger about Sagaro, the dominant force among stayers in the mid-1970s, when he became the first horse to win three Gold Cup with an imperious hat-trick under Lester Piggott. Homebred by Geneva-based financier Gerry Oldham and trained by the great Francois Boutin, Sagaro won his first Gold Cup on fast ground in 1975 by four lengths over top stayer Le Bavard (who had beaten him in the Prix du Cadran) before cruising home in contemptuous fashion the following year as he toyed with runner-up Crash Course, value for a lot more than the one-length margin.
After Sagaro failed to attract any serious offers as a potential stallion, Oldham kept him in training and was rewarded with a historic third Ascot success, achieved in truly remarkable fashion as he beat Buckskin, himself a great stayer, by five lengths under a tight rein. “Champions like him don’t come along often,” suggested his owner. Ascot’s main Gold Cup trial is now named in his honour.
4. Le Moss (1979, 1980)
ch h Le Levanstell - Feemoss
Trainer: Henry Cecil
Jockeys: Lester Piggott, Joe Mercer
Owner: Carlo d’Alessio
Career stats: 11 wins from 15 runs
Best Timeform rating 135
Completed the ‘stayers’ triple crown’ – Ascot, Goodwood and Doncaster Cups – as both a 4- and 5-year-old. Notoriously recalcitrant at home, Le Moss was an enigma: Never anywhere near as much of a public favourite as fellow stayers Buckskin and future champion Ardross, both Warren Place inmates for a period themselves, yet master of the pair when it came to the Gold Cup.
In 1979, stable jockey Joe Mercer preferred Buckskin to Le Moss, whom he was later to describe as a “cantankerous bugger”; the latter, though, with Lester Piggott up, won by 7 lengths. After an amazing training performance with a horse who suffered a career-threatening injury, Le Moss set a relentless gallop under Mercer before holding off year-younger Ardross (then still trained in Ireland) to complete back-to-back victories.
5. Ardross (1981, 1982)
b h Run The Gantlet - Le Melody
Trainer: Henry Cecil
Jockeys: Lester Piggott
Owner: Charles St George
Career stats: 14 wins from 24 runs
Best Timeform rating 134
Although Le Moss beat Ardross every time they met, it is hard to be confident about the pecking order between the pair. As tough as they come, Ardross certainly boasted the more impressive overall record, proving unbeatable at trips beyond 1m4f after he joined Henry Cecil following the death of original trainer Paddy Prendergast. Indeed, he even ran twice with immense credit in the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe, fifth from the widest draw in 1981 and then narrowly beaten by French filly Akiyda on his final career start in 1982, when he was Britain’s Horse of the Year.
While it was hardly Ardross’s fault that he faced scant opposition at Ascot, his two wins were bloodless affairs gained at long odds-on over a total of seven opponents. Otherwise, he would be higher in this list.
6. Kayf Tara (1998, 2000)
b h Sadler’s Wells - Colorspin
Trainer: Saeed Bin Suroor
Jockeys: Frankie Dettori, Mick Kinane
Owner: Godolphin
Career stats: 10 wins from 15 runs
Best RPR 127
Godolphin’s best pure stayer ran in three Gold Cups altogether, his two victories sandwiching a third place behind Enzeli on ground faster than ideal in 1999 (his sole defeat in a 2-year stretch). With stamina unproven, he was a bit of a surprise winner as a 4-year-old when his victims in a 16-runner field included a pair of former winners in Double Trigger and Celeric, plus the admirable Persian Punch. Two years later, Kayf Tara’s reputation was unquestioned and he went off 11/8 favourite before making hard work of a head verdict over Far Cry, after which the recurrence of an old injury brought about his retirement. Also a dual Irish St Leger winner, he was named Cartier’s champion stayer three years in a row.
7. Fame And Glory (2012)
b h Montjeu - Gryada
Trainer: Aidan O’Brien
Jockey: Jamie Spencer
Owner: Smith/Magnier/Tabor/Hay
Career stats: 14 wins from 25 runs
Best RPR 130
Taking high rank among the plethora of Ballydoyle middle-distance stars stepped up in trip has to be Fame And Glory, a G1 winner and 2, 3, 4 and 5, notably via a 5-length Irish Derby win during a Classic campaign in which he regularly took on the great Sea The Stars. Having won the Tattersalls Gold Cup and Coronation Cup at 4, the son of Montjeu overwhelmed his rivals when he moved up in distance in 2011 for an emphatic Ascot triumph, scoring by three lengths as a well-backed favourite.
No horse on this list achieved a higher RPR than his personal-best 130, achieved when second to Sea The Stars in the 2010 Irish Champion Stakes.
8. Order Of St George (2016)
b h Galileo - Another Storm
Trainer: Aidan O’Brien
Jockey: Ryan Moore
Owner: Magnier/Tabor/Smith/Williams
Career stats: 13 wins from 25 runs
Best RPR 125
With seven victories in the last 15 years, Aidan O’Brien is the leading trainer in Gold Cup history. Order Of St George, the most recent Ballydoyle winner, was an outstanding stayer, good enough to make the frame in back-to-back runnings of the Arc at Chantilly. He was especially well suited by cut in the ground, such as when he recorded a hugely impressive 3-length victory on his Royal Ascot debut in 2016.
Ran in three Gold Cups, short-headed at odds-on by Big Orange in a thriller 12 months later and fourth to Stradivarius in 2018. Also won a pair of Irish St Legers by a cumulative total of 20 lengths – plus a shock defeat in a race he should have won at 1/7 after his Gold Cup win in 2016.
9. Westerner (2005)
b h Danehill - Walensee
Trainer: Elie Lellouche
Jockey: Olivier Peslier
Owner: Daniel Willdenstein
Career stats: 11 wins from 28 runs
Best RPR 129
As a French-trained Gold Cup hero who never actually won a race at Ascot, Westerner’s name is perhaps easily overlooked in the annals, yet he was a top-class stayer in France, numbering back-to-back editions of the Prix du Cadran and Prix Royal-Oak among a litany of Group-race successes at home. Runner-up to Papineau in the 2004 Gold Cup, he returned 12 months later to win at the York version of the royal meeting, pushed out to justify favouritism by a neck over 16 rivals. On its own, not enough to warrant a place in this Top Ten, but he won consecutive gongs as Europe’s champion stayer at the Cartier Awards – and, moreover, was beaten only a couple of lengths when runner-up to the brilliant Hurricane Run in the Arc in 2005.
10. Classic Cliche (1996)
b h Salse - Pato
Trainer: Saeed Bin Suroor
Jockey: Mick Kinane
Owner: Godolphin
Career stats: 6 wins from 16 runs
Best RPR 126
Classic Cliche was an early Godolphin standard bearer, a leading member of the Classic generation of 1995, when he won the Dante Stakes and finished fourth in Celtic Swing’s Prix du Jockey Club before an emphatic victory in the St Leger. Even better at 4, he landed the Yorkshire Cup before stepping up three-quarters of a mile for the Gold Cup, where, after a patient ride to preserve his stamina from Mick Kinane, he pounced inside the final furlong to overcame the formidable Double Trigger.
As if to demonstrate his class, he cut back a mile on his next outing to give Pentire a fight in the King George (beaten just a length and three-quarters into second, with the Derby winner Shaamit back in third). He never quite lived up to his summer exploits again, though he was also runner-up to Celeric at Ascot in 1997.
Honourable mention ...
Double Trigger (1995)
ch h Ela-Mana-Mou - Solac
Trainer: Mark Johnston
Jockey: Jason Weaver
Owner: Ron Huggins
Career stats: 14 wins from 29 runs
Best RPR 120
Maybe there’s a touch of sentiment involved here, but surely no self-respecting list of Gold Cup winners can ignore this fan favourite. A living equine embodiment of his redoubtable trainer, Double Trigger captured the hearts of the racing public, amassing 12 Group-race wins during a long career and running in four Gold Cups altogether, winning once and twice finishing second. A three-time winner of both the Goodwood and Doncaster Cups, his best performance at Royal Ascot came on his Gold Cup debut, when he made all to win by a thumping 5 lengths over St Leger winner Moonax to provide the highlight of an annus mirabilis in which he landed the stayers’ triple crown.
Also runner-up to Classic Cliche after a hoof injury in 1996 and just a neck behind Kayf Tara two years later as a 7-year-old.