Order Of St George and Big Orange head Goodwood Cup possibles

Big Orange has won the past two renewals of the Qatar Goodwood Cup and landed the Gold Cup at Royal Ascot last week for owner Bill Gredley. Picture: Racingfotos.com

Big Orange and Order Of St George, who fought out a fantastic finish to the Gold Cup at Royal Ascot last week, feature among 29 entries for the Qatar Goodwood Cup on August 1.

The two-mile contest has been upgraded to Group One status from Group Two this year and carries a record prize fund of £500,000 – an increase of £200,000 on the previous year.

The historic race, first run in 1812, is now the highlight of the opening day of the Qatar Goodwood and forms part of the QIPCO British Champions Long Distance category.

Big Orange, trained by Michael Bell and owned by Bill Gredley, became the first horse since Double Trigger (1997 & 1998) to capture back-to-back renewals of the Goodwood Cup last year.

The six-year-old gained the biggest success of his career when defeating Order Of St George by a short head in the Group 1 Gold Cup over two and a half miles at Royal Ascot last Thursday.

Order Of St George, a decisive winner of the Gold Cup in 2016, is among five possibles for champion trainer Aidan O’Brien. The Ballydoyle handler has also entered last year’s Epsom Derby runner-up US Army Ranger along with three-year-olds Belgravia, Finn McCool and Wisconsin.

Vazirabad missed the Gold Cup after because of a setback but the five-year-old, owned by the Aga Khan, and winner of on 11 of his 16 starts, could also be in the line-up. The son of Manduro won the two-mile Dubai Gold Cup at Meydan in March when he had Sheikhzayedroad and Big Orange behind.

“It is possible that Vazirabad will make the Qatar Goodwood Cup,” Alain de Royer Dupre, his trainer, said. “He came back from the Prix Vicomtesse Vigier with a problem – he got a cut behind from another horse.

“We are going very slowly because it is not completely healed. The plan is to go to Goodwood but it depends on when we can get him back to normal training.

“The Gold Cup would have been a typical race for Vazirabad because when they have a lot of pace, he has a very strong turn of foot. Big Orange won well but Vazirabad has beaten him twice in the Dubai Gold Cup.”

Meanwhile, Winter, winner of the QIPCO 1000 Guineas and Coronation Stakes, could seek a third success in this year’s Champions Series in the Qatar Nassau Stakes, which is run over a mile and a quarter and takes place on August 3.

She is among nine entries for O’Brien, out of a total of 30 for the race. Alice Springs, Rhododendron and Seventh Heaven also feature among his team.

The Sir Michael Stoute-trained Queen’s Trust chased home Minding last year and Chris Richardson, managing director of Queen’s Trust’s owners Cheveley Park Stud, said: “We would very much hope that Queen’s Trust can go for the Qatar Nassau Stakes again this year.

“I haven’t spoken to Sir Michael since her run at Royal Ascot last week but we have put her in and the race is very much an option for her.

“She was slowly away at Royal Ascot and got pinned in on the rail. When she did get clear, she ran on well to the line. She certainly showed improvement from her first run this season at York and hopefully she can continue to do that throughout the year.”