Order Of St George shines in Group 1 Ascot Gold Cup
A hot-favourite has finally delivered for punters at the 2016 Royal Ascot carnival with Order Of St George winning the Ascot Gold Cup in fine style.
The Aidan O’Brien-trained runner settled near the back with Ryan Moore in the saddle before pushing wide on the home turn and striding away for a three-length win over Mizzou. The $1.90 price at Sportsbet.com.au was the shortest-priced winner of the carnival so far.
2014 Cox Plate-winning jockey Ryan Moore said the ride was not an easy one over the extreme staying distance of 4000m.
“It was a messy race, very messy, 17 runners in a Gold Cup doesn’t make it easy – I had to ride about four different races there, it was a nightmare the whole way” Moore said.
“He’s a very exciting horse with a lot of class. He picked up very well and after two and a half miles, he was pouring it on at the end.”
The win was O’Brien’s eighth in the race having won it on four occasions with Yeats, and now the four-year-old is being set for the Irish St Leger before a possible trip to France for the Arc de Triomphe and to Australia for the 2016 Melbourne Cup.
“Ryan relaxed him as he had to because we’d never tried the trip. It was a bit messy and rough,” O’Brien said. “It was a great performance.
“We thought we would give him a break now and then give him an Irish St Leger prep. We would not rule out in Arc if there was suited ground come Arc time.”
Order Of St George is part-owned by Melbourne Cup extraordinaire Lloyd Williams and it’s now the $17 favourite with Crownbet. Aidan O’Brien has never trained a Melbourne Cup winner and is weary about the weight his runner would receive.
“He’d have 14 stone,” O’Brien added. “You have to remember that he was the highest-rated horse in Ireland last year. He won a strong Irish St Leger by 11 lengths going further away, so if he wasn’t going to stay, none of the horses were going to stay.
“Everyone at home has put a lot into this to get him back after he had a setback last year, as we were a little worried that we wouldn’t get him back. When Ryan switched him out, he came up the middle and wasn’t waiting on anything else, he just kept coming. He is just a big Rolls Royce engine.
“Ryan was very clever and didn’t panic on him. Despite it getting pretty rough, he wasn’t worried and he got to the home straight without using any gas. He had to be very cool to do what he did.”
Last year’s Melbourne Cup runner-up Max Dynamite finished a disappointing 10th.