RACING/ROYAL ASCOT REPORT AND PREVIEW:IT MAY be unfashionable but the Ascot Gold Cup has a history of special Irish horses winning it and none more special than Yeats who became just the second horse to win the great marathon prize three times in a row yesterday
After the seven-year-old won by five lengths from Geordieland to continue a vintage Royal Ascot week for Johnny Murtagh and Aidan O'Brien, inevitable comparisons were made with the only other treble winner Sagaro in 1975-77.
There is no doubt that Yeats deserved such plaudits but it also seemed more than appropriate that the Irish star won exactly 50 years since Gladness became the first winner of the Gold Cup from Ireland.
The links between the mare's trainer Vincent O'Brien and his successor at Ballydoyle are obvious especially since Gladness was a significant early element in the development of the famous training establishment that now dominates European racing.
Levmoss in 1969 landed the Gold Cup before notching a remarkable international double in that year's Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe and, while Enzeli in 1999 was hardly in that league, he did give a certain JP Murtagh an early education in how to win it.
Murtagh subsequently won twice more on Royal Rebel and all that experience came to the fore yesterday when the jockey made a decisive move half a mile from home.
Sure of Yeats' stamina, Murtagh banked on breaking his French rival Coastal Path and won. In fact his main threat came from last year's runner-up, Geordieland, but, contrary to expectations, his final card was played early in the straight.
It gave Yeats ample time to emphasise how grit and resolution are the priceless Gold Cup commodities. Allied with a touch of class, they make him pretty much unbeatable around this terrain.
"I knew he stays, I knew he has the heart of a lion and he has that extra touch of class. He is a class act," said Murtagh who hadn't been intimidated by Geordieland's early move. "I was thinking I was going to make it harder for him than it was at York. Aidan had told me get to four furlongs out and stretch them."
O'Brien reported: "I know the work and time that's put in to get here for one year so three years is unbelievable. When he's fit he is very aggressive and Johnny got him into a great rhythm."
Yesterday was also memorable for the Dublin-born jockey Robert Winston who landed the Norfolk Stakes on the 11 to 4 favourite South Central for Durham trainer Howard Johnson.
He's better known as a jumps trainer, including being responsible for the triple Stayers' Hurdle champion Inglis Drever, but Winston has been in the headlines for mainly the wrong reasons in recent years.
He only returned from a one-year suspension for passing information for reward last February, but the Finglas native was at his best yesterday in getting South Central home in a tight finish from Spin Cycle.
"I hope with some publicity I can get back into the big time," Winston said afterwards.
Michita proved her Epsom Oaks running to be all wrong with a decisive victory in the Group Two Ribblesdale in which the O'Brien runner, Kitty Matcham, never got in a blow while King Of Rome had to settle for a fast finishing third in the Hampton Court Stakes behind the well backed Collection.
