Three Gold Cups For Magnificent Stradivarius

Soft ground? No worries. If anything, that extra dimension only served to exaggerate the superiority of Stradivarius (Ire) (Sea the Stars {Ire}) as Bjorn Nielsen's chestnut entered immortality with an emphatic third G1 Gold Cup at Royal Ascot. Joining Sagaro (GB) and now only one off Yeats (Ire) with his awe-inspiring tally, the 4-5 favourite was always well within his comfort zone sauntering around this part of Berkshire that he has made his own. Switched off in his customary mid-division pitch throughout the early stages, he was lightly squeezed into engagement with over a half mile remaining and the response was such that Frankie had already taken three lingering looks behind over the course of the next furlong. With all covered in front and behind, Dettori let him coast to the leader Nayef Road (Ire) (Galileo {Ire}) approaching two out and there was even time to relish the moment before the command was given. Opening up in a style hardly seen in this legendary race, the champion stayer was to make the winning margin of lengths a perfect 10 to mark the occasion. It was another eight back to Cross Counter (GB) (Teofilo {Ire}) in third, only serving to further emphasise the enormous gap in class between the winner and this year's chosen opponents.

“You're never on the bridle in the Gold Cup a furlong out. Usually everybody labours by the three, so it was an amazing feeling and a fantastic performance,” Dettori said. “Even with no crowd, I'm quite emotional. I was worried about the rain, it was a concern but he actually really surprised me because he went through it like a hot knife through butter. I had everybody covered. It's always that scary moment when you get to the furlong marker–will he pick up or not–but he did and he stretched away by 10. Amazing. It just shows what a fighter and how versatile he is. It's all about Stradivarius today. He's a wonderful horse who'll go down as one of the great stayers.”

Ascot stages jump races throughout the winter and this finish, played out against the unseasonable gloom with the mud flying, bore more than a small resemblance. One of that pursuit's all-time greats, Kauto Star (Fr), came here in 2008 while Desert Orchid (GB) produced a top-five performance of his glittering career in the 1989 Victor Chandler Chase. In many ways, these great staying monuments of the Flat carry greater emotional weight than the shorter commercial contests and when a special one comes along to grace them they are readily taken to the hearts of purists and fans alike. Like “Kauto”, Stradivarius proved here that he could bounce back from a momentum-stopping defeat and overcome perceived adversity with the kind of display that will retain resonance down the decades. It is a cruel twist of fate that only a select handful will get to say “I was there” as they hark back to Thursday, June 18th 2020.

While he was a dual Weatherbys Hamilton bonus millionaire, loping around here, Goodwood, York and Doncaster collecting hordes of new followers as he went, it was all plain sailing. Despite the quality of his last two Gold Cup fields and a possible career-best in the most recent of his three renewals of the G1 Goodwood Cup, it is perhaps only after reversal that the true measure of a cult hero is made. Inched out by Kew Gardens (Ire) (Galileo {Ire}) in an epic encounter on the sole occasion that they have met in the two-mile G2 Qipco British Champions Long Distance Cup, his longstanding position as division leader was threatened for the first time in over two years. Even then he was obviously beaten as the line neared, but he pointed his nose with all the strength he could muster to narrow the margin to the bare minimum by which he could be vanquished.

Their renewed rivalry could have seen one of the great Gold Cup battles, but while Kew Gardens is becoming by virtue of flagrant ill-fortune the best Aidan O'Brien-trained horse not to win one of these, the horse affectionately named the “Milky Bar Kid” by John Gosden after his success 12 months ago just keeps coming back. Some well-respected pundits questioned the way he carried himself as he managed third place in a furiously-contested G1 Coronation Cup on slick ground at Newmarket just 13 days before this date with destiny, but he was at top speed a long way out there, determined as ever as he got to within five lengths of Ghaiyyath (Ire) (Dubawi {Ire}). His trainer knows enough already, but where Stradivarius is concerned he has had time to develop an encyclopedic knowledge of what makes the 6-year-old tick and all the vital signs at Clarehaven were spot-on as he made the brief turnaround.

What nobody connected with the horse or his legions of well-wishers would have wanted to see was 20-plus millimetres of precipitation from the end of the previous day's racing. After Frankie's fancied mounts throughout the earlier action failed to make an impact one after another, the doubts were setting in as much as the rain. In the event, the softened ground had much more impact on those that lack the requisite class to become Gold Cup winners and one by one they began to feel the pain heading out of the back straight. That stage of the race that Aidan O'Brien talked about in the years of Yeats as being the pinch-point, the moment of truth, was exactly that again in 2020.

Stradivarius has a distant connection with one of the great Arc winners, Peintre Celebre (Nureyev), a monstrous figure on all types of ground and some key material has been passed down through his dynasty to this current star in the firmament. As the drag of the sinking turf sapped the energy of the seven who dared to front up to him, only Nayef Road clung to the outside prospect of glory heading for home. In that inimitable fashion which is trademark Mark Johnston, the G3 Sagaro S. winner kept meeting the needs of Ryan Moore but while his resolve remained stiff and unbending with no hint of resignation, the writing was already on the wall.

Had Stradivarius faltered after carting Frankie alongside Nayef Road, flattering to deceive for once in his career, nobody would have been in the least part judgmental. Instead, entering the final furlong and a half of this most extreme examination of his staying power, he transformed anxiety into certainty in a few ebullient strides. Soon gone beyond recall and reproach. Devouring the ground that was supposed to compromise him all the way to the winning post in a time just 11 seconds longer than that recorded on contrasting going as he eclipsed Vazirabad (Fr) (Manduro {Ger}) and Torcedor (Ire) (Fastnet Rock {Aus}) in 2018. Alone in his own procession. One of the greatest performances in Royal Ascot's history.

John Gosden had to carry the hopes of the many onlookers alone as he witnessed the achievement from one of the track's eerily-void vantage points. He was a relieved man afterwards. “I thought Frankie was sitting out of his ground, so I couldn't enjoy it much until they got to the three marker where I could see him looking under his elbows and everywhere else,” he said. “It was a superb performance. I think the benefit of the Coronation Cup in a very fast time meant he was fully fit, but I was concerned that he was having to run again so quickly because of the bounce factor. I'm very proud he's won three and particularly proud for the man who's done it, Bjorn Nielsen. He's passionate about it and keeps trying to breed a Derby winner, but he's got a very good Cup horse. For him it is profoundly fulfilling and it's just a pity he can't be here today.”

Gosden revealed that the G1 Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe is on the agenda, a throwback to the oh-so-near early-80s tilt by the wonder stayer Ardross (Ire) to whom this winner bears valid comparison. “We might just look towards the Goodwood Cup next, he's won three of them already, then we might take a pull as there is talk of running in an Arc,” he said. “He ran brilliantly in the Coronation Cup, so an Arc on autumn ground isn't out of the question. We're very proud of him, he's a personality, let me tell you. He's a remarkable horse and it's down to Bjorn whether we come back for a fourth.”

Stradivarius is the final gift given by Private Life (Fr) (Bering {GB}), the twice listed-placed bay who signed off her career for Daniel Wildenstein and Andre Fabre with a ninth placing in the G1 Prix Vermeille of the millennium year. She was purchased for just 70,000gns by Blandford Bloodstock at the 2006 Tattersalls December Mares Sale, six months before her son Persian Storm (Ger) (Monsun {Ger}) made his mark by winning the G3 Bavarian Classic. He went on to add the G3 Furstenberg-Rennen to his tally, but in the following nine years Private Life had only two minor black-type performers under her courtesy of the stakes-placed South African runner Magical Eve (Ger) (Oratorio {Ire}) and the G3 Abu Dhabi Championship third Rembrandt Van Rijn (Ire) by her aforementioned relative Peintre Celebre.

Stradivarius was just a slow-developing juvenile as Rembrandt Van Rijn was doing his bit in the Middle East in March 2016, but this is a family that always comes back to prominence given patience, as the German heavyweight and future G1 Melbourne Cup-winning Australian champion stayer Protectionist (Ger) (Monsun {Ger})–who was lurking under the second dam Poughkeepsie (Ire) (Sadler's Wells)–was to prove. They all descend from Pawneese (Ire), one of the best fillies to race in the Wildenstein silks who boasted the rare combined accolades of Horse of the Year in England and champion 3-year-old filly in France in 1976 courtesy of her triumphs in the G1 King George VI and Queen Elizabeth S. at this venue and the G1 Prix de Diane. Residual class was always there, ready to be drawn upon. Ironically, in the year that Bjorn Nielsen may indeed have the G1 Epsom Derby winner he so longs for in the purchased English King (Fr) (Camelot {GB}), Stradivarius has provided the ultimate payback for his breeding acumen.

Thursday, Royal Ascot, Britain
GOLD CUP-G1, £250,000, Royal Ascot, 6-18, 4yo/up, 19f 210yT, 4:32.60, sf.
1–STRADIVARIUS (IRE), 128, h, 6, by Sea The Stars (Ire)
1st Dam: Private Life (Fr) (MSP-Fr), by Bering (GB)
2nd Dam: Poughkeepsie (Ire), by Sadler's Wells
3rd Dam: Pawneese (Ire), by Carvin II
(330,000gns RNA Ylg '15 TATOCT). O/B-Bjorn Nielsen (IRE); T-John Gosden; J-Lanfranco Dettori. £148,000. Lifetime Record: 2x Hwt. Older Horse-Eur at 14f+, 22-15-2-3, $3,498,667. *1/2 to Persian Storm (Ger) (Monsun {Ger})), Hwt. 3yo-Ger at 9.5-11f & MGSW-Ger, $121,198; and Rembrandt Van Rijn (Ire) (Peintre Celebre), GSP-UAE, $167,081. Werk Nick Rating: A+. Click for the eNicks report & 5-cross pedigree.
2–Nayef Road (Ire), 127, c, 4, Galileo (Ire)–Rose Bonheur (GB), by Danehill Dancer (Ire). (100,000gns Ylg '17 TATOCT). O-Mohamed Obaida; B-B V Sangster (IRE); T-Mark Johnston. £55,975.
3–Cross Counter (GB), 128, g, 5, Teofilo (Ire)–Waitress, by Kingmambo. O/B-Godolphin (GB); T-Charlie Appleby. £27,975.
Margins: 10, 8, 3. Odds: 0.80, 11.00, 7.00.
Also Ran: Withhold (GB), Mekong (GB), Prince of Arran (GB), Technician (Ire), Moonlight Spirit (Ire). Click for the Racing Post result or the free Equineline.com catalogue-style pedigree. Video, sponsored by Fasig-Tipton.