Stradivarius and the Gold Cup quadruple

By Simon Rowlands

If you name a horse after one of the greatest icons of excellence of all time then you had better hope that it proves to be pretty good. That was the challenge created by those involved with naming a son of Sea The Stars and Private Life a few years back.

The chestnut colt, called STRADIVARIUS after the renowned maker of violins that still command huge prices to this day, had a lot to live up to in one respect, if much less in another. Past uses of the name had included the of-no-account hurdler trained by Nigel Twiston-Davies in 1995.

The latter-day equine Stradivarius did not exactly set the world alight as a two-year-old in his first few starts, unplaced in a maiden at Nottingham, then fourth in one at Newmarket, before finally breaking his duck on the all-weather at Newcastle.

He started his three-year-old season in 2017 in ordinary handicaps, winning at Beverley off a mark of 78 and getting beaten at Chester off 90, before taking off at distances beyond a mile and a half, winning the Queen's Vase, the Goodwood Cup and coming third in Capri’s St Leger at Doncaster and in the Long Distance Cup at Ascot.

Since then, almost nothing has put Stradivarius off his stride, and few horses have been able to get the better of him, at least at staying distances.

Stradivarius has added three more Goodwood Cups to that initial one, making him the most successful horse in that race’s long history, plus two Yorkshire Cups, two Lonsdale Cups, a Doncaster Cup, a Long Distance Cup, and, just the other day, a Sagaro Stakes.

He has also won three Gold Cups at Royal Ascot, a remarkable feat in the toughest and best staying race around, and he will shortly be going for win number four. Stradivarius’s place in history is assured, but his status as a legend can still be bolstered further.

Just what it takes to be a multiple winner of the Gold Cup may be deduced from the roll call of past winners.

The race was established in 1807, and (according to Wikipedia) 22 horses have won it more than once, including Le Moss in 1979 and 1980 and Ardross in 1981 and 1982, during a vintage era for stayers. Le Moss ended up being rated 135 by Timeform in 1980, in which year, under a front-running ride from the late and great Joe Mercer, he beat Ardross by three quarters of a length in what may have been the best Gold Cup at Royal Ascot ever.

Ardross attained a career-high rating of 134 from the sages of Halifax (now relocated to Leeds) in the year of his second win in the race, a season which culminated in his narrow second in the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe.

There have, however, been only three horses to have won the Gold Cup more than twice, Stradivarius being one of them.

The first was Sagaro, in 1975, 1976 and 1977, kicking off that aforementioned golden age. The Francois Boutin-trained horse achieved Timeform ratings of 129 (“one of the easiest winners of the Gold Cup we have seen”), 129 and 133 respectively, that last win coming by five lengths from his high-class compatriot Buckskin.

The second was Yeats, who stands alone – for now! – in landing the race four times, in 2006, 2007, 2008 and 2009.

Yeats was a late starter as a Cup horse, running at beyond 14 furlongs for the first time as a five-year-old, on his reappearance in the Gold Cup itself. He won that by four lengths from the French-trained Reefscape, the next two by one and a half lengths then five lengths from the reluctant hero Geordieland, and saw off Patkai by three and a half lengths (Geordieland in third) for his fourth and final success.

It is fair to say that Yeats was not operating in a vintage era, other than in terms of his own presence, but he showed a durability and consistency that eludes even some of the greats. Timeform rated him 128, 126, 128 and finally 126 across those four years.

Yeats reminded us that you do not have to be a dyed-in-the-wool sluggard to be a 20f Gold Cup winner at Royal Ascot, either: he won the Coronation Cup – one of the best 12f races around – as a four-year-old and interspersed his Gold Cup wins with successes at 13f and 14f.

Stradivarius is no sluggard, either, for all that he lost three out of three at around a mile and a half last year and that his latest win in the Gold Cup, on soft ground, was arguably his best effort of all.

Those three 12f losses included a third to Horse of The Year Ghaiyyath and Derby winner Anthony Van Dyck on fast ground and in a course-record time in a Coronation Cup diverted to Newmarket, and a short-neck second to Anthony Van Dyck in a sprint-finish to the Prix Foy at Longchamp.

France Galop’s tracking figures had Stradivarius posting late splits in the Foy of 11.11s, 10.72s and 10.95s. That middle figure is equivalent to 10.78s for a furlong, or 41.7 mph, which is the kind of speed a good sprinter might be proud of. Unfortunately for connections, Anthony Van Dyck started and ended the last 600 metres fractionally ahead of him.

Stradivarius might have been past his best when seventh in another falsely run race for the Arc subsequently, and was certainly not himself when out the back in the Long Distance Cup at Ascot on his final appearance of last year.

A hint of how Stradivarius manages to be so fast and yet stay so well is given by his striding. Total Performance Data has captured his striding measures only once – in the Doncaster Cup in 2019 – when his maximum/minimum cadence was 2.45 and 2.15 strides/second, a remarkably high maximum figure for a horse running at in excess of 12f and a wide range for a horse running at any trip.

Video analysis, where it has been possible, has painted this picture even more starkly. Stradivarius’s cadence ranged between 2.45 and 2.11 when winning the Goodwood Cup in 2018 and between 2.48 and 2.14 when winning the same race the following year.

What that enables Stradivarius to do is to switch off and conserve energy for large portions of a race and then unleash a devastating turn of foot towards the end of it.

That being so, Vazirabad and co in 2018, and Dee Ex Bee and co in 2019, arguably stood little to no chance of outsprinting Stradivarius in steadily run races for his first two Gold Cups. Some of us even imagined that Stradivarius might be vulnerable on softer ground and in a truly run affair (101% finishing speed, compared to approximately 108% finishing speeds for those two earlier wins) 12 months ago. Instead, he delivered arguably his best performance yet!