Royal Ascot takes place this year between June 18 and 22. One of the key races of this five-day horse racing feast is the Ascot Gold Cup. This year is set to see a titanic battle between the 2022 winner Kyprios and Courage Mon Ami who won the race last year.
The Royal Ascot meeting is one that is so historic. Take this race for example, it was first held in 1807 and this year could see more history being made. That will be the case if Aiden O’Brien trains the winner.
He already holds the record for the most wins in this race by a trainer. On eight previous occasions he’s saddled the winner. Most notably he did so with Yeats who dominated this race winning every Ascot Gold Cup held between 2006 and 2009.
This year he hopes to win the race for the ninth time and the prime candidate to extend his record is Kyprios. According to the horse.bet site, he’s the 5/4 favourite to be the winner on June 20 and give owner Sue Magnier her ninth win in the race and is already the most successive owner in the long history of the Ascot Gold Cup.
There have been several horses that have won this race on more than one occasion. We’ve mentioned Yeats but Stradivarius is the last to achieve that feat. The John Gosden trained runner won the Ascot Gold Cup three times with successes between 2018 and 2020.
Royal Rebel won in 2001 and 2002 and another double winner as Kayf Tara, trained by Michael Kinane. He first won the Ascot Gold Cup in 1998 but could only finish third the following year. He came back again in 2000 and won his second Gold Cup. That’s the last time there’s been a multiple winner but not in successive years, now Kyprios attempts to equal the feat.
In 2022, Kyprios was aged four-years-old and beat Mojo Star to win the Ascot Gold Cup by half a length. Former winner Stradivarius was third, a length-and-a-half behind the winner. Kyprios went on to win the Goodwood Cup that year, just getting home from Stradivarius who was just a neck behind.
He didn’t take part in the Doncaster Cup, winning that would have given him the Stayers’ Triple Crown. The Irish St Leger and Qatar Prix du Cadran were also won in the tail end of the season giving him six wins out of six in 2022. The latter saw him win at Longchamp by a staggering 20 lengths.
The hope was for another excellent season in 2023 but injury meant he didn’t have his first race until September. Kyprios had an inner infection inside a knee joint and despite treatment, further infection took place. At least O’Brien still had a successful year as he trained Auguste Rodin to win the Epsom Derby.
When he did make his belated return to the track, he came second in races at the Curragh and Ascot. The latter saw him lose by just a neck to Trawlerman. Both races were run over distances far shorter than the Ascot Gold Cup.
Sometimes trainers decide to go down a previous successfully travelled path in the lead up to a big race. In 2022, Kyprios began his season with wins in the Vintage Crop Stakes at Navan and the Group 3 Saval Beg Levmoss Stakes at Leopardstown. He’s been taken down that route again in 2024 with both races being won.
His return to form has clearly delighted Aidan O’Brien. Speaking after the Leopardstown win on May 17, he commented: “It is amazing the way he has come back this year.” Now the stage is set for him to return to England for the Royal Ascot Gold Cup.
The past three years have seen the race won by a four-year-old. If Kyprios can win his second Ascot Gold Cup in June, he’ll be the first six-year-old to do so since Stardivarius in 2020.
Out to stop him will be the 2023 winner Courage Mon Ami who is trained by John and Thady Gosden. He was successful last year coming home by three quarters of a length from Coltrane who ran a cracker in defeat.
Courage Mon Ami is 7/1 to win this year but if he does, it’ll be his first success since winning the 2023 Ascot Gold Cup. An attempt to win the Goodwood Cup produced a disappointing sixth placed finish. Coltrane (16/1 to win the Ascot Gold Cup this year) reversed form with Courage Mon Ami when beating him into second place at York.
The 2024 Ascot Gold Cup is scheduled to be his first race this season. Courage Mon Ami will do all that’s possible to win for a second successive year but this looks booked for another Kyprios success.
