Eldar Eldarov bids for Gold Cup Glory

British Classic winner Eldar Eldarov has the QIPCO British Champions Series Long Distance division crown in his sights, bidding to become the second St Leger winner this millennium to add the stayers’ blue riband of the Gold Cup at Ascot.

Eldar Eldarov finished second on his first run of the year in last month’s Boodles Yorkshire Cup, the first of seven races in the Series that climaxes with the QIPCO British Champions Long Distance Cup at QIPCO British Champions Day on Saturday 21^st October.

Six St Leger winners have run in the Gold Cup in the last 20 years, but only Leading Light in 2014 achieved the double with Harbour Law third in 2017 after his shock win at Doncaster.

Eldar Eldarov, who won the Queen’s Vase at last year’s Royal Meeting, is one of many contenders with stamina to prove for the two and a half miles of this Group 1.

He has impressed over his Classic-winning trip of a mile and three quarters but finished seventh of eight over two miles in last year’s QIPCO British Champions Long Distance Cup.

His rider David Egan is not so concerned about his stamina and pointed to his biggest career horse Mishriff similarly running poorly in the QIPCO Champion Stakes before conquering Saudi Arabia and Meydan the next year.

“Ascot was at the end of a long year and I feel it was a run similar to Mishriff’s on the same day,” Egan said.

“He took on race-fitter rivals at York last month after a long layoff. It wasn’t that he needed the run fitness wise; he was just a bit rusty mentally. With the way he travelled and finished so strongly he goes there with as good a chance as any.”

Aidan O’Brien’s Gold Cup record of eight wins in the last 17 runnings makes his contenders interesting. He runs both Broome, a place behind Eldar Eldarov at York after his Dubai Gold Cup win, and the filly Emily Dickinson, who was fifth in the St Leger.

O’Brien said: “We were delighted with Broome in Meydan on his first try at two miles. Ryan was pleased with him at York saying he was coming home strongly.

“Emily Dickinson won very well first time this year but was disappointing last time. Maybe the lack of pace in the race and her making the running was a reason but she came out of it well and has done everything right since.”

Coltrane has had a remarkable transformation inside a year after winning the Ascot Stakes at the meeting a year ago, getting weight from most of his rivals in that handicap over the Gold Cup distance.

Fourth to Gold Cup winner Kyprios in the Goodwood Cup next time and touched off by Trueshan in the QIPCO British Champions Long Distance Cup in October, Coltrane ran away with the Group 3 Sagaro Stakes at Ascot at the start of May under Oisin Murphy.

His rider said: “I haven’t ridden him since. He has trained very well and Andrew is delighted with him. The plan after the Sagaro was to go to the Gold Cup with a fresh horse. 

“He has a decent turn of foot for a stayer and picked up nicely for me in the Sagaro. He deserves to be towards the top of the market.”

Godolphin won back-to-back Gold Cups with Sadeem in the late 1980s and it is 11 years since they won the last of its five with Colour Vision.

The team’s Yibir, who beat Broome in the 2021 Breeders’ Cup Turf, will be running over seven furlongs farther than ever before and the jury is out on his stamina index.

His rider William Buick said: “He is obviously very talented and the next step is trying staying trips. This trip is an unknown but I would be confident at a mile and six and hopeful at two mile.”

Stamina is not the concern for Subjectivist as he and Joe Fanning bid to regain the Cup they won in devastating style two years ago.

It is rather whether the six-year-old can reproduce that form after a glimpse of his ability when third to Broome in Meydan on his second run, after near career-ending leg problems.

Trainer Charlie Johnston said: “Meydan showed his fight and ability is still there. It’s possibly ambitious to think we can get him back to being the best stayer in the world – at his best, he can beat them all.”

Willie Mullins runs his Grade 1 hurdler Echoes In Rain in a bid for history as the first trainer to win the Gold Cups of Cheltenham and Ascot in the same year.

The late Queen Elizabeth II thwarted Mullins from Gold Cup glory in 2013 when Simenon was beaten a neck by the monarch’s Estimate.

The 14-runner field is completed by unbeaten Courage Mon Ami, ridden for the first time by Frankie Dettori, Trueshan, for whom trainer Alan King will again make a late decision on running depending on enough rain falling, French challenger Big Call, Coltrane’s stablemate Nate The Grate, Tashkhan, Lone Eagle and Wise Eagle.