ONE IN A MILLION
Can Stradivarius hit the jackpot?
AN unprecedented £1million bonus is waiting for Stradivarius if he hits the right note and completes a stunning four- race winning sequence at York today.
Neither trainer John Gosden, nor jockey Frankie Dettori thought it possible at the start of the season but the four-yearold odds-on favourite is just one win away from a remarkable quartet of victories.
No horse has ever won the Yorkshire Cup, Ascot Gold Cup, Goodwood Cup and today’s Lonsdale Cup in the same season.
It is a target Gosden might have gone for in any event but the fact that, for the first time, a £1m bonus has been put up by Lonsdale Cup sponsors Weatherbys Hamilton surely influenced his thinking.
Without the tempting bonus, Gosden and owner Bjorn Nielsen — who would pocket 70 per cent of the £1m — might have given Stradivarius time to get over his Goodwood exertion and wait for next month’s Doncaster Cup.
But the money has proved too big a lure, though Dettori — who missed the Goodwood Cup because of suspension — does not underestimate the test that still lies ahead.
‘What he has done is almost impossible, to win the three races he has already. That is so hard to do,’ said the Italian. ‘But the two miles of the Lonsdale Cup is his optimum distance.
‘The two-and-a-half miles of the Ascot Gold Cup was stretching him and we got that job done. Two miles is what he wants. Fingers crossed, let’s hope it goes smooth and well.’
Nielsen also owns Petitioner, one of eight rivals for Stradivarius, and he looks sure to set a pace to suit the favourite.
Gosden said: ‘There is no such thing as a certainty. Mr Nielsen has another horse in the race and he is obviously in there for a reason. I didn’t think it was possible to pull the bonus off and it still hasn’t been done — yet.’
Sadly, the long-distance horse has been the poor relation in Flat racing compared with those animals that race shorter distances and go on to lucrative stud careers.
But some of the most popular horses with the public have been stamina-laden runners, such as Ardross, Double Trigger, Persian Punch and Yeats.
The bonus along with other initiatives has been introduced to promote staying horses. Next year’s Ebor Handicap at York will be worth £1m and there are hopes for the Cesarewitch Handicap at Newmarket to rise to the same value
Today’s line-up bears some resemblance to the one Stradivarius dismissed in the Yorkshire Cup in May. That day he beat runner-up Desert Skyline three lengths with Max Dynamite fourth and Count Octave fifth in an eight-runner-up field.
Today Stradivarius also faces Aidan O’Brien’s Idaho, who finished third in the Goodwood Cup on his first try at two miles.
Dettori was successful yesterday on Poet’s Society, the gelding which gave Mark Johnston his record-breaking 4,194th British winner, as well as Gosden’s impressive Galtres Stakes winner Lah Ti Dar, now 4-1 second favourite for the St Leger at Doncaster next month.
It was the first run for the filly, owned by Lord Lloyd Webber, since she suffered a serious viral infection in the spring.