Having one Royal Ascot winner is a dream for most trainers but Aidan O’Brien is no ordinary trainer and he raised the bar to a level unlikely to be matched when training his 100th winner at the famous Royal meeting.
Being O’Brien he not only achieved the feat, he did so in style by bringing the century up in the meeting’s flagship race, the Ascot Gold Cup.
O’Brien’s Scandinavia, a son of the stallion Justify who’d enjoyed his first Royal Ascot success a couple of hours earlier in the Chesham Stakes, was O’Brien’s sole representative in the race and was made favourite on the back of an unbeaten run which had stretched to 5 races, wins which included the St Leger Stakes at Doncaster.
His main rival appeared to be last year’s Gold Cup winner Trawlerman who attracted a lot of attention pre-race as he was wearing a pair of equine sunglasses following some eye issues.
In the race, sunglasses now off, Trawlerman went off in front, clearly intent on testing the stamina of the rest of the field. Scandinavia didn’t give him much rope however and was never more than a couple of lengths off the pace.
Turning into the straight Trawlerman’s jockey William Buick set sail for home but Ryan Moore was also pushing Scandinavia for maximum effort and by the two-furlong pole he was gradually inching his way nearer the John Gosden-trained front runner. By now the only other horse that had been up with the pace, Caballo De Mar, was fading fast leaving Trawlerman and Scandinavia to fight it out alone.
And fight it out they did. Just after the two pole Scandinavia looked to be grinding his way past but Trawlerman is nothing but game and he fought back once the O’Brien horse loomed alongside. With 100 yards to go Trawlerman had restored a good neck advantage and it looked likely that O’Brien would have to wait for that landmark 100th winner but Ryan Moore continued to urge Scandinavia and his horse responded to get up on the line by a head.
Described as a modern-day ‘race for the ages’ by commentators the thrilling finish had shown that stayers, somewhat out of fashion in the UK, could provide a spectacle every bit as thrilling and absorbing as those racing over shorter distances.
Winning jockey Ryan Moore was keen to pay tribute to the runner-up in post-race interviews.
“He should have won easier. I’ve had to work to get to Trawlerman and then I’ve had to go again,” he said. “Trawlerman is a brave horse and he kept coming.”
O’Brien was as humble as ever in the aftermath of the record-extending win.
“I’m not taking it for granted, it’s so special and it’s a day we never thought would happen. Every race is so hard to win here, you never expect anything to happen, you always hope it will.”
One thing is for sure, he will not be resting on his laurels and will go into Friday’s racing with every intention of making a dent into the next hundred Royal Ascot winners.
