Manifest heads Gold Cup declarations
Henry Cecil and the Gold Cup are two institutions of British Flat racing. Both have seen tough times but are now enjoying a mutual resurgence.
The Gold Cup’s place as the centrepiece of the royal meeting at Ascot had appeared to be under threat 20 years ago, with suggestions that it was an anachronism, and that its two-and-a-half-mile distance had no place in the sport any more.
Thankfully the “modernisers” were seen off and the last four years have completed the restorative process with the history-making victories of Yeats. But, with the champion retired, a new name will appear on the roll of honour when the Group One race is run on Thursday.
Cecil has won the race five times, as part of his record haul of 71 Royal Ascot victories, but not since Paean, ridden by Steve Cauthen, beat seven rivals in 1987. Cecil’s challenger this year is Manifest, who became market leader after he won the Yorkshire Cup at the Dante meeting in May.
He will face a maximum of 16 rivals after the six-day declaration stage led by Age Of Aquarius, who will be attempting to provide Aidan O'Brien with a fifth successive Gold Cup victory and who lost little caste in defeat to Profound Beauty at Leopardstown at the end of last month.
This year’s field has few runners with experience of such extreme distances but Ask, third in last year’s King George VI And Queen Elizabeth Stakes, proved himself at two miles when he won the Prix Royal-Oak at Longchamp in October. He was reported to have worked well at Newmarket yesterday and it would be a major feat by trainer Sir Michael Stoute to have the horse ready to win on his first race of the season.
Godolphin have been staunch supporter of the Gold Cup over the years and have a choice of five still left in the race, all trained by Saeed bin Suroor - Darley Sun, Holberg, Kite Wood, Sabotage and Wajir - and Francois Doumen, who this week announced that he was quitting jump racing, has Kasbah Bliss whose only run at Ascot was when fifth to Lough Derg in the Long Walk Hurdle three years ago.
The Oaks form could be put to the test in the Group Two Ribblesdale Stakes, where five of the fillies who chased home the winner, Snow Fairy, are among the 15 still engaged in the race including Gertrude Bell, who was beaten seven lengths in fifth.
Wesley Ward, who last year became the first American-based trainer to win at Royal Ascot, has Metropolitan Man among the 22 who are entered for the Norfolk Stakes over five furlongs. The hallmark of Ward’s two winners last year - when Jealous Again won the Queen Mary and Strike The Tiger landed the Windsor Castle Stakes – was their fast starts and Metropolitan Man looks a similar type, judged on his one run Stateside when he made all to win on the Polytrack at Keeneland last April.
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