Yeats wins Ascot Gold Cup for third consecutive year!
Yeats captured the $490,000 Ascot Gold Cup on Thursday at Ascot Racecourse and has thus generated his third consecutive victory in the race in as many years.
Yeats' triumph gave the partnership between trainer Aidan O'Brien and rider Johnny Murtagh its third Group 1 feature in the first three days of Royal Ascot and their fourth Group 1 tally at the meeting overall. Yeats' latest Ascot Gold Cup victory added to the Ascot Racecourse O'Brien/Murtagh wins of Henrythenavigator in the St. James's Palace and Haradsun in the Queen Anne on Tuesday, and of Duke of Marmalade in the Prince of Wales on Wednesday.
This third 2½-mile Ascot Gold Cup win by Yeats was probably his best in the race.
As the race progressed, Yeats was running evenly with the undefeated French horse Coastal Path from the 3/8 th pole. Yeats then made his presence felt inside the quarter pole but met a determined resistance from Geordieland. Geordieland was in fact successful in putting his nose in front for a very fleeting moment before Yeats repulsed him en route to a five-length triumph.
Geordieland came in 4½ lengths ahead of Coastal Path. Yeats' winning time on the good to firm ground at Ascot Racecourse was 4:21.14, less than a second slower than his two previous victories.
Yeats thus equaled the feat of Sagaro in landing a treble in the prestigious marquee event at Ascot Racecourse. Sagaro accomplished the feat from 1975 to 1977.
At the age of 4, Yeats won the Group 1 Coronation Cup. At age 5, he won the two-mile Goodwood Cup and at age 6, Yeats added the 1 3/4-mile Irish St. Leger.
After this Ascot Gold Cup triumph, O'Brien would not commit his incredible stayer to a set program, nor would he promise or rule out a return to Ascot Racecourse for a fourth possible Ascot Gold Cup, contenting himself to declare simply that Yeats is "a unique horse."
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