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Gold Cup result and report | Trawlerman nets Gold Cup
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William Buick and Trawlerman pictured after claiming the Gold Cup at Ascot
William Buick and Trawlerman pictured after claiming the Gold Cup at Ascot

Gold Cup result and report | Trawlerman nets Gold Cup


Last year's runner-up Trawlerman made all the running under William Buick to outstay main market rival Illinois.

With his stamina proven, last year’s runner-up Trawlerman made all the running to go one better in the Gold Cup, keeping on best in the straight to pull seven lengths clear of main market rival Illinois who was left one paced from the home turn. Godolphin’s other runner Dubai Future plugged on for a remote third, beaten a further seven lengths, in a race where French challenger Candelari, who’d been vying for favouritism with the first two, failed to get competitive from mid-division, finishing a well-beaten sixth. Sweet William had tracked stablemate Trawlerman for much of the way but faded to finish fourth.

Even though Kyprios, who was retired last month, wasn’t around to attempt to win the Gold Cup for a third time, his form loomed large over the runners in the latest edition.

Trawlerman had given his all before going down by a length to Ballydoyle’s dominant stayer twelve months ago, but this time William Buick was able to execute the same front-running tactics all the way to the line to win his second Group 1 of the week in the Godolphin colours for John and Thady Gosden after Ombudsman in Wednesday's Prince of Wales’s Stakes.

While no match for Kyprios again in the Long Distance Cup back at Ascot in the autumn, he did have a neck verdict over his old rival in that same race in 2023 when Kyprios was still on the comeback trail from serious injury.

John and Thady Gosden had won the 2023 Gold Cup, when Kyprios was sidelined, with Courage Mon Ami, while before Kyprios had assumed the mantle of Europe’s top stayer, that status was held Stradivarius who completed a hat-trick of Gold Cup wins for Gosden senior between 2018 and 2020.

Buick was claiming his first career success in the Thursday feature.

Buick told ITV Racing: “He’s a great horse – we were only beaten by a great in Kyprios last year. He’s so genuine – the yard’s horses are in great shape – and I was delighted how he won [the Henry II Stakes] at Sandown, he had a great prep. He’s exactly the sort of horse you want in a two-and-a-half-mile race. I didn’t have to touch the brakes once – he was relaxed and in a great rhythm. I was just a passenger.”

Jayne McGivern, who looks after the winner’s sire Golden Horn, added: “I said to my husband if he wins I’ll run naked down the track for a mile! He so deserved a first Group 1 winner on the track. Congratulations to the guys who trained him – John Gosden deserves so much credit.”

Gosden Senior added: "Trawlerman just goes off. I said to William 'what did you do?' and he said, 'I threw the reins at him, he can judge pace better than me', and off they went together and picked it up from five out. He is an out-and-out galloper and William judged it perfectly – it is not an easy thing to do over two and a half miles.

“On the basis he stays, if anyone is going to go by him, they will know they have been in a race, but they never got to him because he simply outstayed them. He is a wonderful old horse, and a great team look after him. He is a favourite, part of the furniture really.

“He ran Kyprios to a length last year and they were both all out. I think he deserved, with Kyprios not here, to come back and show that he is a proper horse. We like the Cup races and those lovely staying horses. I remember the great horses – Lester Piggott rode Sagaro and he could turn the last six furlongs in 1m.12s flat. That is what I like, a horse than can go the distance and then go, and you can't catch them. That is style.”

William Buick and Trawlerman come home in front in the Gold Cup
William Buick and Trawlerman come home in front in the Gold Cup

Discussing plans for Trawlerman, Gosden said: “I think he should be aimed at coming back next year, and he shouldn’t be over-raced at all in between. Do not be surprised if you don’t see him again until the Henry II next year. That could be a reality. I will discuss it with Sheikh Mohammed, but he doesn't need to be going to all these races. He might come back here in the autumn, he’s won that before, and then put him away.”

Aidan O’Brien said of Illinois: “We thought he would be a Gold Cup horse next year. The plan was for Kyprios to come here this year and Illinois would step up next year. The plan was for Illinois to go to the Coronation [Cup], so I was training him as a good mile-and-a-half horse. Then when Kyprios retired, we switched him to this race.

“We have to be happy with the run. He had a lovely preparation the last day. Maybe if we knew he was coming here straightaway, we might have had him going earlier and maybe lighter. He might go to Goodwood and I would imagine he will progress again.

"He got tired at the two-furlong pole today, like a lot of horses do, and we will see if we can improve him another little bit for this distance. It shows how good Kyprios was, as Trawlerman had been second to him a couple of times.”

Dubai Future’s trainer Saeed bin Suroor said: “He ran really well, and he stayed. Now we will drop him back to two-mile races, maybe Goodwood. I said to James McDonald to drop him in and get him to relax, but also that as a Dubawi, he must have speed. He is an amazing horse, who has won over a mile and a half and a mile and a quarter.”


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