In the absence of the retired Kyprios, his old rival Trawlerman stepped up to Gold Cup glory at Royal Ascot on Thursday.
The John and Thady Gosden-trained gelding had the thankless task of chasing home Kyprios in last year’s Gold Cup, getting within a length of Aidan O’Brien’s now retired champion, who ranks as perhaps the best stayer of the last two decades.
So, for once, the result of the stayers’ championship felt apt as Trawlerman made all under William Buick to set a new track record in the historic old race.
Tangling with Kyprios was an onerous job but in three clashes Trawlerman made a decent fist of it, even beating him once, around Ascot on Champions Day in 2023.
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That was no bad boast, but the seven-year-old gelding hadn’t won at Group One level before, a stat he put right in some style.
The 85-40 favourite had seven lengths in hand of O’Brien’s Illinois, who was the same distance ahead of Godolphin’s outsider Dubai Future.
It was a first Gold Cup for Buick, who also combined with Godolphin and the Gosdens to land Wednesday’s Prince Of Wales’s Stakes with Ombudsman.
“We tried it [same tactics] last year and we were only beaten by the great Kyprios. He’s been such a good horse, he’s so genuine,” Buick said.
“It’s an extreme distance, two and a half miles, so you need an extraordinary horse with an extraordinary set of skills. He’s got that lung capacity and stamina. He got in a great rhythm – it’s a tough thing to do, be in front for two and a half miles like that, but he’s so genuine,” he added.
It was a fifth Gold Cup for Gosden Snr, the 74-year-old stalwart of British racing who landed a hat-trick with Stradivarius and is emerging once more as the main threat to O’Brien’s dominance this week.
Field Of Gold’s spectacular St James’s Palace Stakes victory on day one was another instance of Gosden winning the daily Royal Ascot centrepiece.
“He ran Kyprios to a length last year and they were both all out. I think he deserved it, with Kyprios not here, to come back and show that he is a proper horse,” the trainer said.
“We like the cup races and those lovely staying horses. I remember the great horses – Lester Piggott rode Sagaro and he could turn the last six furlongs in one minute, 12 seconds flat. That is what I like, a horse than can go the distance and then go, and you can’t catch them. That is style,” he added.
Despite Gosden’s hot streak this week, he still goes into the final two days level with O’Brien, who came up short in the Gold Cup but saddled a notable hat-trick in combination with Ryan Moore.
The English jockey took his Royal Ascot tally to 90 when Trinity College completed the three-timer in the Hampton Court. It began with Charles Darwin’s odds-on victory in the Norfolk Stakes and included Garden Of Eden in the Ribblesdale.
Her victory took Moore into tenth place in the list of all-time jockeys in terms of winners ridden in Britain. Number 2,594 saw him pass out Edward Hide, but he has another 155 to get to past the legendary Fred Archer in ninth.
O’Brien is now on 96 Royal Ascot victories and Thursday’s hat-trick meant his remorseless route to a once scarcely imaginable ‘century’ of winners may come up quicker than anticipated.
The Irishman needs three to beat his 2016 record of seven winners in a week that he shares with the late Henry Cecil. He has runners in eight races over the coming two days.
O’Brien’s speciality this week has been the two-year-old department. Gstaad (Coventry) and True Love (Queen Mary) had earlier advertised Charles Darwin’s claims for Norfolk Stakes success and the odds-on favourite duly obliged.
“He is very fast – a big, powerful, strong horse. He has a very good mind as well, so he is very exciting. Ryan has always loved him, and everyone at home loves him. He looks like a four-year-old racing against two-year-olds,” O’Brien said.
Some bookmakers made the youngster only 4-1 to take on his elders in August’s Nunthorpe at York, where Charles Darwin would get a massive weight for age allowance.
“We were hoping that he would get a lead. He never sees the front at home in his work. He is always very happy to sit, but he is very strong and very quick. Ryan does his own thing always. The gates open and he decides. Ryan said he powered through the line,” O’Brien added.
Garden Of Eden may skip next month’s Irish Oaks in favour of a trip to the US in pursuit of a top-flight success, while Trinity College made light of a short gap since his French Derby fourth to make most in his Group Three.
“Ryan gave him a beautiful ride, had him in a lovely rhythm early and when he started getting him to move, he really moved, kept going to the line so you’d be very happy with him now,” O’Brien said. “He would have a lot of options. He could be an American Derby horse.”
Oisín Murphy reached 18 Royal Ascot winners with a handicap double. The Kerry jockey enjoyed an easy win in the finale on Never So Brave but was all out to land the Britannia on another Godolphin winner, Arabian Story.
