Our man at the track David Ord reflects on a Ryan Moore landmark and Kyprios’ victory in Thursday’s Gold Cup at Royal Ascot.
It was fitting that on an afternoon when he passed Frankie Dettori to go second in the list of most successful jockeys at Royal Ascot, Ryan Moore won the Gold Cup.
He’ll have to keep finding the key to the Berkshire door for a good few years yet mind to get close to Lester Piggott’s remarkable 116 winners here, but at the first Royal meeting since Dettori’s domestic retirement, it was clear the modern baton has been passed on.
It’s remarkable to think that back in October 2020 speculation was rife that the winning rider and Aidan O’Brien were about to part company. Paddy Power priced up the next Ballydoyle jockey with Colin Keane a warm favourite.
If you stepped in, I hope you kept your slip safe – there’s plenty of life left in this partnership.
On both Port Fairy in the Ribblesdale and Kyprios in the Gold Cup, Moore evoked memories of Piggott. When he’s in front inside the final furlong there’s a sense of inevitability about him and his partner getting the job done.
There was a wobble in the big one, a sense of déjà vu as the trailblazing Trawlerman rallied strongly to throw down a renewed challenge once headed.
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In the autumn mud of QIPCO British Champions Day it was enough to break the 2023 model of Kyprios. But not this one.
O’Brien and the Ballydoyle team have worked wonders to bring their star stayer back to the level he was operating at on Thursday.
Winner of the Gold Cup two years ago, he missed his title defence after suffering a joint infection that at times people feared could threaten his career. He was back for two runs late in the season but we wondered, out loud in the build-up to this week, whether the fire really did still burn. Could he possibly rescale the same heights aged six after such a battle?
We got our answer two furlongs out in the Ascot sunshine. He was asked to pass Trawlerman as in behind Keane took aim at both the front two aboard Vauban.
From that moment on there was no hiding place. A healthy crowed roared, Moore got lower and sterner in the saddle, the advantage for much of the remainder of the race never grew beyond half-a-length.
But in those final 50 stamina-sapping yards Kyprios finally broke his rival. At the line he led by a widening length.
It’s been a contrasting week – so far at least – for racing’s superpowers. For Ballymore and Coolmore, through Illinois, Auguste Rodin, Port Fairy and Kyprios, it’s been a good one. Big winners, in races that matter.
For the new kids on the block, Wathnan Racing, success too. Shareholder in the opening Norfolk Stakes was their second winner of the week from a 12-lot spending spree at the various breeze-up sales. They also had the second and third in the Coventry.
But for Godolphin, owners of Trawlerman and Wild Tiger, the Royal Hunt Cup hero, less so. Trainer Charlie Appleby must have thought the green shoots of recovery were bursting through when Notable Speech won the QIPCO 2000 Guineas, but his Newmarket hero bombed out in Tuesday’s St James’s Palace Stakes and the promise Diamond Rain had shown when winning her first two starts at Ascot and Newbury, was missing as she trailed home last of 12 in the Ribblesdale.
So far, their own breeze-up investment hasn’t reaped an early reward. There’s plenty of time left to build momentum again this season, but you get the impression it will take a little while longer for them to be trading blows with the County Tipperary team on a regular basis on the biggest stages.
The fact that O’Brien and Coolmore haven’t left the top table themselves for so long is testament to many things. A remarkable breeding operation, the sure touch of a master trainer and the strength and tactical nous of his riders.
Where Piggott had Vincent O’Brien and Henry Cecil, Dettori, John Gosden and Godolphin, Moore has had Sir Michael Stoute and Aidan O’Brien. Great trainers make great jockeys and vice versa.
And as they shared the presentation stage with the King and Queen to celebrate another Gold Cup and another big Royal Ascot double, you knew they were far from finished.
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