Royal Ascot 2011 - Fame and Glory wins fifth Gold Cup for Aidan O’Brien, Jockey Jamie Spencer
Fame and Glory a four year old bay horse won the Gold Cup of the Royal Ascot by a considerable margin. He breezed past rivals to claim the victory in English Grade One Gold Cup and earning a hefty purse of $407, 388.
Gold Cup is one of the major events of the Royal Ascot and it is considered to be the most prestigious and testing races of the Royal Ascot. Conducted on Ladies Day, Gold Cup is held on the third day of the Royal Ascot festival.
The horse that has won it more than any other horse is Yeats, who kept winning it for four consecutive years 2006, 2007, 2008 and 2009. It is open for thoroughbreds ageing four and older, it’s a long distance race, which happens to be a far as, 2 ½ miles
(4,023) meters.
Aidan O’Brien the champion trainer, who landed the Gold Cup four times before with Yeats, did it again with Fame and Glory. In the history of Gold Cup there hasn’t been a 4 time winner in the historic event. Aidan O’Brien brought out the class in Yeats and
he can certainly do the same with the new Gold Cup winner Fame and Glory.
English bred by Ptarmigan Bloodstock and Kirsten Rausing, Fame and Glory made the marathon distance look easy and won it with an impressive three lengths margin. Before coming into the Gold Cup, Fame and Glory had successfully landed the Ireland Grade One
Tattersalls Gold Cup and the English Grade One Investec Coronation Cup and with straight listen wins in Ireland he was an 11 to 8 favorite to win the Gold Cup.
Tastahil, who was ridden by Richard Hills, assumed a comfortable position at the front of the pack and kept leading the 15 horses, who were forced to pursue. No one seemed in a hurry because of the marathon distance they had to cover and they couldn’t let
the horses tire out too early in the race.
Fame and Glory’s mount, Jamie Spencer, was content to hang back with the rest of the horses to judge the distance and the right time to kick on and shift gears. Showers earlier had left the track soft and adapting to the soft ground didn’t look that hard
as every horse on the field looked comfortable running on it.
Geordieland took over Tastahil for a very short period because at the time he had given his all to steal the lead and shortly started to fade as there was not much left in the tank.
Duncan and Aim to Prosper then fought for the lead and when they entered the final bend Jamie Spencer guided his horse by the rail and took both of them on. Duncan gave Fame and Glory not a lot to worry about as he powered past the gelding to finish the
2 ½ mile marathon race in 4 minutes and 37.51 seconds.
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