Order of St George spearheads field for QIPCO Long Distance Cup

Order of St George flies to success in the The Gold Cup In Honour Of The Queen’s 90th Birthday at Royal Ascot. Picture: Racingfotos.com

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Order Of St George, the emphatic Gold Cup winner at Royal Ascot this year, stands out among 63 entries for the stayers’ showpiece, which carries prize money of £350,000.

 The four-year-old son of Galileo could seek to emulate Fame And Glory, who won the Gold Cup for Aidan O’Brien in 2011 before going on to land the QIPCO British Champions Long Distance Cup.

 O’Brien’s other 11 possibles include Idaho, placed in the Investec Derby and Irish version, and Bondi Beach, first past the post in last year’s St Leger.

Irish-trained horses have won four of the five renewals of the race and, apart from O’Brien’s squad, they could be represented by Forgotten Rules, winner of the race in 2014, and Max Dynamite, runner-up in last year’s Emirates Melbourne Cup.

There is also plenty of depth to the home team, with Mizzou, runner-up in the Gold Cup, Big Orange, the dual Qatar Goodwood Cup winner, and Simple Verse, the Ladbrokes St Leger winner, all entered.

Also engaged are the first four home last year – Flying Officer, Clever Cookie, Wicklow Brave and Pallasator.

Clever Cookie finished best of all on that occasion and has looked as good as ever this term – finishing a neck second to Mizzou in the Longines Sagaro Stakes back at Ascot before going one better in the Betway Yorkshire Cup. He failed to figure in the Gold Cup but Peter Niven, his trainer, said there were mitigating circumstances.

“You can’t come back from being 25 lengths down at Swinley Bottom and expect to win,” the former jump jockey said. “We’d have needed to have started the day before. The QIPCO British Champions Long Distance Cup is a lovely prize and a race we always target because we know, hopefully, we are going to get decent ground.

“He’s been off a while but everything is fine. He will be back for the Weatherbys Hamilton Lonsdale Cup [at York on  August 19] and then he will either go for the Doncaster Cup [on September 9] or Palmerstown House Estate Irish St Leger a couple of days later.”

Full list of entries:

1. Almela (IRE)
2. Amour de Nuit (IRE)
3. Anglophile (GB)
4. Antiquarium (IRE)
5. Arya Tara (IRE)
6. Aussie Reigns (IRE)
7. Bhutan (IRE)
8. Big Blue (GB)
9. Big Orange (GB)
10. Bondi Beach (IRE)
11. Burmese (GB)
12. Charming Kitten (USA)
13. Clever Cookie (GB)
14. Clondaw Warrior (IRE)
15. Commissioned (IRE)
16. Cook Islands (IRE)
17. Curbyourenthusiasm (IRE)
18. Dannyday (GB)
19. Flying Officer (USA)
20. Forgotten Rules (IRE)
21. Glaring (GB)
22. Gold Prince (IRE)
23. Green Light (GB)
24. Housesofparliament (IRE)
25. Idaho (IRE)
26. Important Message (GB)
27. Ivan Grozny (FR)
28. Kellstorm (IRE)
29. Kinema (IRE)
30. Landofhopeandglory (IRE)
31. Launched (IRE)
32. Litigant (GB)
33. Magic Circle (IRE)
34. Max Dynamite (FR)
35. Mizzou (IRE)
36. Muntahaa (IRE)
37. Nearly Caught (IRE)
38. Order of St George (IRE)
39. Oriental Fox (GER)
40. Pallasator (GB)
41. Pamona (IRE)
42. Pearl Dragon (FR)
43. Qewy (IRE)
44. Quest For More (IRE)
45. Renneti (FR)
46. Sandro Botticelli (IRE)
47. Secret Number (GB)
48. Sheikhzayedroad (GB)
49. She Is No Lady (GB)
50. Simenon (IRE)
51. Simple Verse (IRE)
52. Sir Chauvelin (GB)
53. Star Rider (GB)
54. Suegioo (FR)
55. Sword Fighter (IRE)
56. The Major General (IRE)
57. Triplicate (IRE)
58. Trip To Paris (IRE)
59. Twilight Payment (IRE)
60. Unicorn (IRE)
61. Wicklow Brave (GB)
62. Winning Story (GB)
63. Wrangler (GB)