Johnston believes Subjectivist to be Stradivarius’s biggest test yet in the Gold Cup

After all too many frustrations trainer Mark Johnston might be entitled to have tired of trying to get the better of staying superstar Stradivarius, who bids to break into the Gold Cup’s most exclusive club by joining Yeats as a four-time winner on Thursday at Royal Ascot, but in Subjectivist he has a candidate who might just succeed where others were found wanting.

Johnston is a huge fan of these long-distance races and is better equipped in the staying department than almost any other trainer, barring perhaps Aidan O’Brien. His Dee Ex Bee was a close second to Stradivarius three times in the summer of 2019, including when beaten only a length in the Gold Cup, while Nayef Road was a ten-length second last year before getting very much closer in the Al Shaqab Goodwood Cup. 

Nayef Road tries again, in the second race in the long distance category of this year’s QIPCO British Champions Series. However, Subjectivist looks very much the stable’s number one after following last year’s all-the-way win in a heavy-ground Prix Royal-Oak (essentially the French St Leger) with a deeply impressive success in a Dubai Gold Cup run on a much sounder surface. 

Johnston is a three-time Gold Cup winner already, with Double Trigger (1995, when he also won the ‘Stayers’ Triple Crown’) and Royal Rebel (2001 and 2002), and he recently described Double Trigger’s five-length defeat of the former St Leger winner Moonax at Ascot as his proudest moment. He is perhaps overdue a fourth win.

He said: “We were second to Stradivarius in the Gold Cup with both Dee Ex Bee and Nayef Road, and one had been second in the Derby and the other third in the St Leger, so you couldn’t say that Subjectivist is necessarily a higher grade horse. It’s more the manner of his victory in Dubai, and the fact that he’d won a Group 1 in France on his previous start. 

“His last two runs have been the best of his life and he looks to be both tremendously progressive and so much better at two miles than at shorter trips. That’s why we hold out so much hope that Subjectivist might be the biggest threat to Stradivarius in the last couple of years. He’s obviously not been beyond two miles, but we are pretty confident he’ll stay.”

Nayef Road has been below his best since finishing third to Stradivarius in Ascot’s Sagaro Stakes, but Johnston hopes he has an explanation.

Great Britain’s winning-most Flat trainer, who said he would be looking forward to seeing Stradivarius more than any other horse all week if he wasn’t so closely involved in the Gold Cup himself, said: “Nayef Road is going to Ascot on the back of two disappointing performances, but while his second in the Gold Cup last year was with cut in the ground, we had previously always thought he was better on fast ground. 

“We are hopeful that on better ground we’ll see him back to his best, although there’s obviously some rain forecast on Thursday so we have to be prepared for that. Give in the ground wouldn’t worry Subjectivist, as it was heavy in France and until he went to Dubai the doubt was whether he could handle fast ground. You’d have to say he was even better on it.”

Stradivarius is trying not just for a fourth successive win in the Gold Cup, but for a fifth successive win at Royal Ascot, as he also won the Queen’s Vase, when he went to post looking merely an up-and-coming three-year-old handicapper. He has gone on to win 13 QIPCO British Champions Series races, the most since the Series began in 2011. The next best horses on the leaderboard are the likes of Frankel (9) and Enable (7) and he can extend that lead further here with victory.

His prep run, which was his first outing for the Gosdens’ new father-and-son training partnership, went smoothly in the Sagaro, and while he reportedly remains one of his stable’s great characters, there is no sign of his appetite for racing declining.

John Gosden said: “It will be extraordinary if he can win at Royal Ascot for a fifth time, especially as he’s a full horse, but he seems to love his training still, and he seems to like his racing too. He can be very naughty beforehand and think that he’s in the covering shed, but when he gets down to the start he just stands there and looks about and says ‘Okay, I’ve got a job to do, let’s go’.

“He’s also won four Goodwood Cups, he’s won Lonsdale Cups, and he’s won Doncaster Cups. He also twice knocked off the Weatherbys Hamilton £1m bonus, which nobody thought any horse could achieve, and, touch wood, we are ready to go again.

“He’s been remarkable and he has this exciting turn of foot. His toughest race was his first Gold Cup, against the great French stayer Vazirabad but overall I think his record stands up. He’s come back well this year and his win in the Sagaro was tidy. He wasn’t asked too much and let’s hope he’s ready for the big one.”

Aidan O’Brien has sent out a record seven Gold Cup winners and is strongly represented as always. The 2020 Irish Derby winner Santiago, who subsequently chased home Stradivarius in the Goodwood Cup, was always expected to run here, and the presence of Amhran Na Bhfiann is no surprise. 

However, few outside Ballydoyle’s inner circle were expecting last year’s Derby winner Serpentine to be supplemented, since Saturday’s Hardwicke Stakes had been mooted as his likely target. Derby winners used to be commonplace in the Gold Cup, but Blakeney was the last to run here, and that was all of 51 years ago, when he was second to out-and-out stayer Precipice Wood. Serpentine has yet to race beyond a mile and a half, so this is a massive step up in distance, but he’s a fascinating runner.

O’Brien’s two trainer sons also have live chances. Joseph, who was successful here riding his father’s Leading Light in 2014, saddles last year’s Melbourne Cup winner Twilight Payment, with the stable’s St Leger-winning rider Tom Marquand booked. Donnacha’s Emperor of the Sun, who will be ridden by Gavin Ryan, is on an upward curve and had Twilight Payment in third when taking the equally notable scalp of Search For A Song last time.

Alan King has declared last year’s runaway QIPCO British Champions Long Distance Cup winner Trueshan, with Hollie Doyle booked again, but thunderstorms are likely to be required if last month’s Ormonde Stakes runner-up is to line up.

King said: “He’s been declared but we are very reliant on thunderstorms hitting Ascot. He’s in great nick and I couldn’t be happier with him, but if it doesn’t rain he doesn’t run. It will have to go to good, or good to soft.” 

A field of 13 also includes a German runner in the Andreas Suborics-trained Hoppegarten Group 2 winner Rip Van Lips, Tony Mullins’ rags-to-riches mare Princess Zoe, and the Andrew Balding-trained Spanish Mission, who beat Santiago in the Yorkshire Cup.

As a proven stayer with a touch of class Spanish Mission has every chance of getting in the money, but Balding does not underestimate the opposition.

He said: “I’m really pleased with Spanish Mission. I thought it was a really good effort at York, but he faces some mighty opponents here in the likes of Stradivarius, Subjectivist, and Santiago, not to mention Serpentine, who I wasn’t expecting.

“It’s a really intriguing race, as a Gold Cup should be, but Spanish Mission is in great form. It’s another two furlongs further than the Doncaster Cup, which he won last year, but I’d be hopeful that he’ll stay.”