Ascot Gold Cup Betting Offers, Tips

Gold Cup Preview: Tips, Betting Offers and Odds

The feature contest on day three at Royal Ascot is the top staying event of the British season. Read on for the best odds, offers and betting tips for the historic Gold Cup.

First run at Ascot in 1807, this 2m4f, Group 1 contest for runners aged four and older now offers prize money of £400,000 and is one of only three perpetual trophies to be awarded at the Royal meeting.

Gold Cup Previous Winners

  • 2019 – Stradivarius – jockey Frankie Dettori, trainer John Gosden
  • 2018 – Stradivarius – jockey Frankie Dettori, trainer John Gosden
  • 2017 – Big Orange – jockey James Doyles, trainer Michael Bell
  • 2016 – Order Of St George – jockey Ryan Moore, trainer Aidan O’Brien
  • 2015 – Trip To Paris – jockey Graham Lee, trainer Ed Dunlop
  • 2014 – Leading Light – jockey Joseph O’Brien, trainer Aidan O’Brien
  • 2013 – Estimate – jockey Ryan Moore, trainer Sir Michael Stoute
  • 2012 – Colour Vision – jockey Frankie Dettori, trainer Saeed bin Suroor
  • 2011 – Fame and Glory – jockey Jamie Spencer , trainer Aidan O’Brien
  • 2010 – Rite Of Passage – jockey Pat Smullen, trainer Dermot Weld
  • 2009 – Yeats – jockey Johnny Murtagh, trainer Aidan O’Brien
  • 2008 – Yeats – jockey Johnny Murtagh, trainer Aidan O’Brien
  • 2007 – Yeats – jockey Michael Kinane, trainer Aidan O’Brien
  • 2006 – Yeats – jockey Kieren Fallon, trainer Aidan O’Brien

Gold Cup History

There aren’t many races in the British racing calendar which boast over 200 years of history but we have one here. Ascot’s Gold Cup has been the jewel in the crown for flat racing’s stoutest stayers since it first took place at the Berkshire venue way back in 1807.

Whereas the race is now only open to those runners aged four and older, the conditions for the inaugural running permitted three year olds to take part. It was a three year old who duly won the first Gold Cup, and whilst the name of the trainer, owner and jockey seem to have been lost to the annals of time, we do know that the horse went by the name of Master Jackey.

1824 winner Bizarre showed there was nothing strange about his triumph by following up in 1825. In so doing he became the first to take the prize on more than one occasion. A number of others have won back to back renewals over the years including Fisherman, Touchstone, Le Moss and Ardross.

The 1847 winner is unique in the history of this race in that he had no name at the time he crossed the line! A winner here deserves a name at least, and in honour of the watching Nicholas I of Russia, the horse was handed the title of “The Emperor”. Proving his victory to be no, fluke The Emperor put up another regal performance to win again in 1848.

1977 winner Sagaro earned his place in the history books in becoming the first horse to win this marathon event three years in succession. In the capable hands of Lester Piggott for each of his victories, the French trained colt now has one of the key Gold Cup trials named in his honour. The Sagaro Stakes has been run at Ascot since 1978, with a number of its winners going on to land this contest. To win this war of attrition three years in a row was a magnificent achievement and it would take a pretty remarkable racehorse to better it.

In 2006 that horse arrived. Sired by the superstar stallion Sadler’s Wells, Yeats spent much of his first three seasons competing and winning smartly at around 1m2f-1m4f. Once stepped up to staying trips he progressed from being smart to becoming undoubtedly one of the greatest stayers of all time. Between 2006 and 2009 no other runner could get near him in the season’s biggest staying contest as the Aidan O’Brien star won four Gold Cup’s in a row. O’Brien had not won the Gold Cup prior to Yeats’ first win in 2006 but by 2016 was well out in front as the most successful trainer in the history of the race with seven wins.

Whilst Sagaro was the most prolific horse Lester Piggott rode to victory here, he was far from being The Long Fellow’s only winner. In addition to his treble on Sagaro, Piggott recorded a double in the race aboard Ardross as well as six other individual winners. All of which combined gives Royal Ascot’s greatest jockey an unsurpassed 11 wins in this staying showpiece, a record we don’t see being challeneged any time soon!