If the loudest cheer here on Thursday was for England’s winning goal in Lens, the most sustained acclaim was for Order Of St George, the favourite, as he gave Aidan O’Brien his seventh win in the Gold Cup from the past 11 seasons.
Under a composed and confident ride by Ryan Moore, Order Of St George swept past the field in the home straight to win by three lengths, showing a blend of stamina and finishing speed that could prove irresistible here for several years to come.
Yeats, one of the Royal meeting’s legends, was O’Brien’s first Gold Cup winner in 2006 and went on to become the first horse ever to win the race four times. Order Of St George has a long way to go to match him, but he overcame a big field and a stop-start pace with ease here and is already only 5-2 to repeat this victory next year.
The first two odds-on shots here this week were losers, including O’Brien’s The Gurkha in the St James’s Palace Stakes, but the punters retained confidence in the trainer and his stable jockey and backed Order Of St George from evens to 10-11 just before the off.
As the field passed the stands for the first time, Order Of St George was not entirely settled, and a few hearts may have started to flutter as the leaders headed towards the home turn with Order Of St George still towards the rear.
The nerves were settled within half a furlong at the top of the straight, however, as Moore gave Order Of St George his head and the favourite moved powerfully through the field. He was in front with a furlong to run and stayed on strongly to beat Mizzou, with the 40-1 outsider Sheikhzayedroad back in third.
“He’s got a lot of class and it was a messy race,” Moore said. “Seventeen runners doesn’t make it easy. I had to ride about four different races there, it was a nightmare the whole way.
“He’s a class horse and class horses win races. He picked up very well and to still be pouring it on at the end of two-and-a-half miles is a very good performance.”
Order Of St George is part-owned by Lloyd Williams, a leading owner in his native Australia, and some bookmakers handed out quotes for the Melbourne Cup after this victory. O’Brien, though, is unlikely to head to Flemington Park in November – “he’d have 14 stone,” the trainer said – and holds him in such regard that a trip to Paris in October for the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe remains a possibility.
“You have to remember that he was the highest-rated horse in Ireland last year,” O’Brien said. “He won a strong Irish St Leger by 11 lengths going further away, so if he wasn’t going to stay, none of the horses were going to stay.
“Everyone at home has put a lot into this to get him back after he had a setback last year, as we were a little worried that we wouldn’t get him back. When Ryan switched him out, he came up the middle and wasn’t waiting on anyone else, he just kept on coming. He is just a big Rolls-Royce engine. Ryan was very clever and didn’t panic on him. Despite it getting pretty rough, he wasn’t worried and he got to the home straight without using any gas. He had to be very cool to do what he did.”
Earlier on the card, O’Brien had saddled his 50th winner at the Royal meeting when Even Song came home one-and-a-half lengths clear of Ajman Princess in the Group Two Ribblesdale Stakes.
Sir Michael Stoute, with 73, is the only other current trainer to have reached a half-century of Royal winners, while the late Sir Henry Cecil remains the all-time leader with 75. Even Song will be trained for the Irish Oaks at The Curragh next month.
“Ryan rode her in the Pretty Polly at Newmarket and he felt she was the second-best staying filly we had [after Minding, the Oaks winner],” O’Brien said. “He didn’t want her to go to Epsom, so we thought we would come here and then go to the Irish Oaks.”
Godolphin sent out their fourth winner of the week in the Tercentenary Stakes as Hawkbill, from Charlie Appleby’s yard in Newmarket, beat Prize Money, also in the Godolphin blue, trained by his near-neighbour Saeed bin-Suroor.
“I told William [Buick] to ride him like the best horse in the race and that’s what he’s done,” Appleby said. “It’s a pleasing effort and I’m delighted to finally get a winner on the board. As they say, you come down here to put some manners on you, and I’ve had two days of that.”
Robert Cowell, whose two previous winners at the Royal meeting had both come in the Group One King’s Stand Stakes, took the opening Norfolk Stakes with another useful sprinting prospect in Prince Of Lir.
“He is a pocket rocket,” Cowell said. “We had a good bunch of two-year-olds this year, but with the cream rising to the top, and he was one of them.”
Moore’s double on Even Song and Order of St George took him level with Frankie Dettori on three winners in the race to be the week’s leading jockey.
As a result, the odds have switched for the second time this week, with Moore, who started the week at 1-3, back at odds-on at 1-2 having been a 2-1 chance on Thursday morning. Dettori is now 2-1 while Buick, who has two winners so far, is a 20-1 chance.
