Order Of St George has pulled off an unlikely victory to get up in the final strides of the Group Two Long Distance Cup at Ascot.
Part-owned by Australian Lloyd Williams and trained by Aidan O’Brien, the original Melbourne Cup topweight was sent off the 4-5 market leader, but with two furlongs (400m) to run he looked beaten as Torcedor kicked clear in Saturday’s 3200m-race.
Gold Cup winner Big Orange was a spent force a long way out on the heavy ground and it was Mount Moriah who led them into the straight, with Torcedor on his shoulder.
When Colm O’Donoghue asked the Jessica Harrington-trained Torcedor for maximum effort he looked sure to collect, but in the final 100 yards he was treading water as Ryan Moore got a late lunge out of Order Of St George.
John Gosden’s Goodwood Cup winner Stradivarius stayed on for third under Frankie Dettori.
