Breeding & Racing Magazine

Stradivarius Dominant With a Capital D

In this day and age, it’s rare to see a horse win a Group 1 event by 5-lengths, let alone 10, which puts into context the extent to which Stradivarius crushed his opponents in Royal Ascot's Gr1 Gold Cup (2 miles, 4 furlongs). It was a contemptuous wrecking-ball display to bring up a hattrick in one of the world’s great staying events – just the third time it has been achieved in the race’s 213-year history – and made a mockery of the $1.80 starting price offered about the John Gosden-trained son of Sea The Stars. To say the race will live long in the memory is utterly inadequate. Nobody will remember it quite as personally as Frankie Dettori, who said he knew he had the field covered as far out as 4 furlongs, telling racingpost.com, “Even with no crowd I'm quite emotional. It's a very proud moment. To be able to say one day when I'm sitting on my rocking chair that I rode the horse who won three Gold Cups is amazing. That's a big number and I'm very proud of it.”