A year after fluffing his Royal Ascot lines, and lucky to escape from a stalls incident in one piece, Kyprios looks to secure Gold Cup glory in what remains the sentimental highlight of this week’s action.
Sadly, the two-and-a-half mile test of stamina and courage remains an outlier in strict bloodstock industry terms, but there is still no more eagerly anticipated contest than Thursday’s centrepiece.
A year after fluffing his own Ascot lines, the veteran Stradivarius gets another shot at equalling Yeats’s record four Gold Cup successes achieved between 2006 and 2009.
Plenty were prepared to blame an uninspired Frankie Dettori spin for Stradivarius failing to pull off the feat on that occasion, although the reality could be the bonny chestnut is simply not as good as in his pomp.
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At that peak his finishing kick looked to make him all but unbeatable over extreme distances.
Even the most oblivious Ascot socialite can appreciate the lure of an old champ swinging for one last knock-out punch and the prospect of Dettori and Stradivarius emerging on top has huge appeal.
To Irish eyes eager for a 12th Gold Cup victory from this country since the second World War, there is plenty of goodwill towards last year’s runner-up Princess Zoe.
The Tony Mullins trained-mare has captured the racing public’s imagination over the last couple of years and if ground conditions weren’t quite so quick it would be straightforward to make a convincing case for the popular grey mare going one better this time.
It is Mullins’s brother, Willie, who has to settle for outsider status this time with Burning Victory.
However, the man who masterminded Yeats’s record haul could ultimately have the material to deny any kind of fairytale outcome.
With a record seven Gold Cup victories in all under his belt, Aidan O’Brien know better than anyone what’s required and there appears to be growing confidence in the Ballydoyle camp about Kyprios steeping up.
It would be quite a story in its own right since the regally-bred colt’s career prospects looked unpromising last year when he panicked in the gates for the Queen’s Vase and scrambled out underneath.
Not surprisingly he wasn’t seen again until this spring when routing his fellow Moyglare runner Search For A Song in the Vintage Crop at Navan.
That earned Kyprios an official 117 rating, just 1lb less than Stradivarius. A subsequent Saval Beg stroll indicated a rising star, with only half a dozen lifetime starts under his belt, that’s still rapidly progressive.
His stamina is unproven but O’Brien said: “He’s done well this year, winning twice in two trials we’ve used before for the Gold Cup. You’re never sure if they will stay the Gold Cup trip until they try it but we’ve always felt that he would. He won’t mind fast ground.”
If Kyprios possesses a classic pedigree his two-year-old stable companion The Antarctic is bred for speed and nothing else.
The brother to Battaash is set to run the Ascot five furlongs his illustrious relative won the King’s Stand over in the opening Norfolk Stakes.
After wins at Tipperary and Naas this will be the fastest surface The Antarctic has encountered to date unlike the sole filly in the race, Pillow Talk, who broke her duck at Listed level in York.
O’Brien’s History and Jessica Harrington’s Magical Lagoon carry Irish hopes in the Ribblesdale and the latter’s narrow defeat to Concert Hall at Navan reads well in form terms now.
