Royal Ascot: Stradivarius, 8, has shot at fourth Gold Cup victory

Stradivarius’s reign as king of the Gold Cup at Royal Ascot ended last summer when Subjectivist won the Gold Cup. But Subjectivist suffered a serious leg injury and has not started since his Gold Cup victory last year.

Stradivarius, the Gold Cup winner in 2018, 2019, and 2020? He just soldiers on. He comes into Thursday’s Group 1 Gold Cup at Royal Ascot after winning his 8-year-old debut in the Group 2 Yorkshire Cup, a 1 3/4-mile race on May 13 at York, for the third time, and a fourth Gold Cup win is far from out of the question.

This year, the younger upstart is Kyprios, an Aidan O’Brien-trained 4-year-old who has been stretched to staying trips in a two-start 2022 campaign. He won both races, most recently capturing the Group 3 Levmoss Stakes by 14 lengths, albeit while facing only three rivals. Kyprios never has raced beyond 1 3/4 miles, much less tried anything like the testing 2 1/2 miles of the Gold Cup, a trip Stradivarius has relished.

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Six-year-old Trueshan probably prefers softer ground than he’s going to get Thursday, with the Ascot course on Monday listed as good to firm, but he might pose a more formidable challenge than Kyprios. Trueshan has five wins and a second from seven races since being moved out to two- and 2 1/2-mile races, and in the Prix du Cadran last fall in France, he cruised to a four-length victory over Stradivarius.

The lone American runner on the Thursday program is expected to be Seismic Spirit, a Wesley Ward-trained medium-priced shot in the Group 2 Norfolk for 2-year-olds over five furlongs. American owner Peter Brant also has a Norfolk runner, the Joseph O’Brien-trained Alexis Zorba, a two-race maiden.

Emily Upjohn, who ran a winning race in the Oaks on June 3 at Epsom only to lose a head bob to victorious Tuesday, had been the strong early favorite for Thursday’s Group 2 Ribblesdale, for 3-year-old fillies over 1 1/2 miles, but she was taken out of the race by trainers John and Thady Gosden to point for major summer goals. That leaves Sea Silk Road, a Sea the Stars filly trained by William Haggas, as the early favorite. Haggas’s yard houses Baaeed, the best offspring of Sea the Stars in training, who was to race Tuesday in the Queen Anne.

◗ Graham Motion was on hand to watch Spendarella, his starter in Friday’s Coronation Stakes, work three furlongs over the Newmarket heath on Monday morning. Motion said Spendarella’s trip to England had “gone pretty smoothly” and that race rider William Buick was up for the Tuesday work. Spendarella, unbeaten in three races and especially eye-catching in her last two, would have an easier time Friday if Homeless Songs, the sharp Irish 1000 Guineas winner, doesn’t start in the Coronation. Trainer Dermot Weld said he’d take the filly out of the race if the Ascot course doesn’t get rain during the week. Also expected to start is the Christophe Clement-trained Pizza Bianca.