For once horses and high fashion were forced to stand aside on Ladies’ Day here as two jockeys emerged to seize the attention. Ryan Moore, riding with supreme vision and self-assurance, completed a treble on the day to equal the modern-day record of eight winners at a Royal meeting but even he could not match the historic achievement of Graham Lee, who became the first rider in history to win both the Grand National and the Ascot Gold Cup when Trip To Paris led the field home in this meeting’s most prestigious race.
It is just over 11 years since Lee won at Aintree on Amberleigh House and only three since he switched from jumping to ride on the Flat in the hope of extending his career in the saddle. He has not simply survived but flourished to the point of finishing third in the jockeys’ championship behind Richard Hughes and Moore last season. This, though, was his first Group One winner as well as his first success at Royal Ascot – and in the race that matters most of all.
The Piggott family completed the same double as Lee in these two historic events but the Grand National success of Ernie Piggott in 1912 was separated by two generations and 45 years from his grandson Lester’s first Gold Cup in 1957. Lee, meanwhile, has also ridden the winner of a feature event at Cheltenham in March, having steered Inglis Drever to victory in the World Hurdle in 2005.
“That’s an awful question,” Lee said when asked if winning an Ascot Gold Cup ranked above a Grand National victory. “I’ve had a great day in the office. It’s lovely to ride a winner here, and a Group One as well.
“The second I got legged up on him in the parade ring I knew he was going to run well. He was asleep, he was relaxed all the time and conserving energy. The race went well and happy days. Thank the man above, everything went good.”
Lee’s success on Trip To Paris was also about as homespun as they come at this meeting, as his mount was bought for 20,000gns as a two-year-old and arrived at the Royal meeting having started the season running fourth off an official British Horseracing Authority rating of 88 in an all-weather handicap race at Kempton.
Trip To Paris’s success in the Chester Cup in May paid for a £35,000 supplementary entry fee into Thursday’s race but Ed Dunlop, his trainer and also one of his seven owners, was not convinced that it was worth the risk. With a £230,000 first prize in the bank, it now looks like the best bet of the Royal meeting.
“Credit must go to the owners,” Dunlop said. “Those who know me know I’m not the most adventurous when it comes to stumping up £35,000, particularly when I own a bit of the horse.
“Graham Lee has been a big part of this. I thought it was a great ride. Trip To Paris has made phenomenal progressthis season, he’s won four of six and is one of the most improved horses in training. This is one of my greatest days as a trainer. My father [the trainer John] and mother had the Gold Cup on their dining table, so to actually win it is a dream come true.”
Some of the money from Trip To Paris’s latest success may now be reinvested in a ticket to Australia in November for the Melbourne Cup, a race that Dunlop has gone close to winning several times with Red Cadeaux.
“The Australians, the clever ones, said we ought not to be running in the Gold Cup because it would spoil his mark for the Melbourne Cup,” Dunlop said. “But I think his owners will want to do it now and why not?”
Lee steered an incident-free path to victory on Trip To Paris but the same could not be said for Ryan Moore on the runner-up Kingfisher, who tried and failed several times to find a route towards the lead inside the final two furlongs before running on strongly to finish a length and a quarter adrift.
There was no error involved on his part, just a series of decisions that did not work as intended. Yet it was still a sign of his winner’s mentality that, when asked how he would sum up his day after the third of his winners, Moore replied: “I need to move on from the Gold Cup”.
In every other respect his afternoon was exceptional, as his second treble of the week took him to eight winners for the meeting, a modern-day record alongside Piggott, who did it twice, and Pat Eddery.
Both Piggott and Eddery were ridingat four-day meetings but Moore isalready alongside the pair of them after three and within sight of Fred Archer, whose remarkable 12-winner haul at the Royal meeting in 1878 is the all-time record.
Moore maintained his dominance from the saddle with three beautifully judged rides which highlighted both his strength, judgment and versatility. Waterloo Bridge, in the opening Norfolk Stakes, came late to pick off the market leaders Log Out Island and King Of Rooks, while Curvy was extracted from a pocket a quarter of a mile out before running on strongly to beat the even-money favourite Pleascach in the Group Two Ribblesdale Stakes.
Moore completed his treble on War Envoy, a 10-1 chance, in the Britannia Handicap, again timing his run to perfection to win one of the season’s most competitive handicaps by a neck.
The most impressive winner of the afternoon was Time Test, who stepped up from an easy success in a handicap at Newbury last month to take the Group Three Tercentenary Stakes with similar ease. Frankie Dettori, his jockey, travelled like the winner at every stage and was then able to pick his moment to quicken clear, eventually winning by three and a quarter lengths. Time Test is now a 25-1 chance for the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe at Longchamp in October.
