Stradivarius goes for fourth straight Ascot Gold Cup

At roughly 2 1/2 miles, the Ascot Gold Cup ranks among the longest Group 1 races in the world, and at age 7 the race’s favorite Stradivarius knows something about staying around for a good long while.

Europe’s greatest staying horse of recent generations, Stradivarius won the 1 3/4-mile Queen’s Vase during the Royal Ascot meeting in 2017. The next three Royal meetings, he won his first Gold Cup, working to beat the excellent French staying horses Vazirabad; scored a workmanlike one-length win over Dee Ex Bee in 2019; and romped home a 10-length hero in the 2020 renewal.

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Stradivarius, a 17-time winner from 27 starts, tried and failed to adapt to a shorter 1 1/2-mile test in the Prix de l’Arc de Troimphe last October and ended 2020 with the worst race of his life, finishing 12th in the British Champions Long Distance Cup over a sodden course he couldn’t handle. His 7-year-old debut, on April 28 at Ascot, yielded a useful tally in the Group 3 Sagaro Stakes at two miles, a comeback performance that has made him an odds-on favorite to win his fourth Gold Cup in the Thursday feature at Royal Ascot.

Trained by John and Thady Gosden for owner-breeder Bjorn Nielsen, Stradivarius will have regular rider Frankie Dettori on his back when he tries to beat 14 foes in the fourth of seven Thursday races.

Four-year-old Subjectivist has the profile of a relatively young and improving horse, still working his way into the staying ranks, who could give the favorite a fight. Subjectivist ended his 2020 season with a solid win in his first test over a distance a far as nearly two miles, winning the Group 1 Prix Royal-Oak at Longchamp. That race was contested over heavy going. Subjectivist showed he is not dependent on ground, traveling to Dubai for his 4-year-old debut and romping in the two-mile Dubai Gold Cup, a race run on a flat, turning course over good going.

Trueshan won the Champions Long Distance Cup last fall (the race where Stradivarius floundered), but runs over a much different sort of Ascot course Thursday.

Ward has two in Norfolk

The Group 2 Norfolk, for 2-year-olds over a straight five furlongs, lifts the lid on the Thursday card and includes two Wesley Ward-trained runners: Lucci, a debut winner over the Belmont grass, and Nakatomi, who won his lone start, a dirt race at Keeneland. The pair worked together in Kentucky, Ward said, with Nakatomi getting the better of Lucci, who subsequently was fitted with a figure eight noseband and a tongue tie and outworked Lucci after shipping to England, according to Ward.

The Norfolk still had more than 30 runners in the entries as of Monday, with post positions yet to be assigned.

Between the Norfolk and the Gold Cup come the Group 3 Hampton Court, for 3-year-olds over about 1 1/4 miles, and the Group 2 Ribblesdale for fillies and mares at about 1 1/2 miles. The early Ribblesdale favorite is Noonday, a Juddmonte Farms homebred by Galileo out of Midday who has won two of her four starts and most recently finished second to Snowfall, who returned to win the English Oaks by 16 lengths.