Royal Ascot is just around the corner, with the five-day extravaganza set to take place at the prestigious Berkshire racecourse from Tuesday 20 – Saturday 24 June. With eight Group 1 contests spread out throughout the five days, it is no surprise many fans of the sport consider it to be the flagship event of the flat season.
The feature races on each day include the St James’s Palace Stakes (Tuesday), the Prince of Wales Stakes (Wednesday), the Coronation Stakes (Friday) and the Diamond Jubilee Stakes on Saturday. However, the blue riband contest is on Thursday when the Ascot Gold Cup takes place.
The best long-distance runners in the sport will ascend on Ascot’s hallowed turf for the Gold Cup, which has produced some titanic tussles and legendary stayers in recent years — none more so than Stradivarius, who won the race three times in a row between 2018-2020 under Frankie Dettori for John Gosden and owner Bjorn Nielsen.
With Stradivarius retired, 2021 champion Subjectivist an outsider at 12/1 in the Royal Ascot betting and last year’s winner Kyprios set to miss the upcoming renewal due to an injury, it’s likely there will be a new name on the Gold Cup’s roll of honour. That said, read on as we take a look at some of the horses who could emerge as this year’s star stayer.
Coltrane – 7/2
A proven stayer, Coltrane displayed some solid form over two miles+ last season. The Andrew Balding-trained horse won the Ascot Stakes over 2m4f, the Listed Esher Stakes over 2m at Sandown, turned over heavy favourite Trueshan in the Group 2 Doncaster Stakes and was second by a head back against his Alan King-trained rival in the Long Distance Cup on Champions Day.
The six-year-old has had a promising start to this season, winning the Group 3 Sagaro Stakes — which is considered a Gold Cup trial — at Ascot by almost five lengths from nearest rival Wise Eagle and his form at the course will surely see him heavily backed in the betting. The addition of 1000 Guineas-winning jockey Oisin Murphy is always a bonus.
Eldar Eldarov – 4/1
Still relatively lightly raced at this stage of his career, with just six races on the turf, Eldar Eldarov landed Roger Varian his second St Leger last September — beating Haskoy by two lengths, but the second spot was later awarded to Godolphin’s short-priced favourite New London (11/8) after Frankie Dettori’s mount was adjudged to have caused interference and was relegated to fourth.
He was disappointing next time out at Champions Day, however, finishing seventh of eight runners in the Long Distance Cup and some 14 lengths behind Trueshan in what was his first attempt over two miles. That raises some concerns surrounding whether the four-year-old will be able to stay the Gold Cup’s testing two miles and four furlongs, but he had a promising run on reappearance to finish second in the Yorkshire Cup (1m6f) after a 216-day layoff.
Emily Dickinson – 7/1
While Ballydoyle lost one major contender in the form of Kyprios, master trainer Aidan O’Brien still has a fantastic chance of winning back-to-back renewals of the Gold Cup as Emily Dickinson is third in the betting at 7/1 for the marathon contest with most bookmakers.
The four-year-old was 0-6 over the course of last season before being stepped up to two miles on her last run at the Curragh in October. She took to the longer trip fantastically, pulling clear to win the Group 3 contest by a comfortable five-and-a-half lengths.
Emily Dickinson reappeared at Navan in April and won a Listed contest over one mile and six furlongs by five lengths under Ryan Moore, but was then disappointing again at Leopardstown last month — finishing sixth in the Group 3 Saval Beg Levmoss Stakes.
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