Royal Ascot / Dan Fitch / 14 June 2011 / 1 Comments

Dan Fitch looks at the numbers which define the records and statistics of the Ascot Gold Cup.

The highlight of the Royal Ascot meeting is the Gold Cup. Betting on horse racing is a numbers game, so it's no surprise to find that the history of the race is one defined by them.

Here are all the records and statistics for Britain's most prestigious event for stayers - it's the Ascot Gold Cup in numbers.

3 - The Gold Cup is one of three races that form Britain's Stayers' Triple Crown, along with the Goodwood Cup and the Doncaster Cup. The only horse to have won all three races in the same year was Double Trigger in 1995.

3.25 - The price at the time of writing, of the favourite for the 2011 Ascot Gold Cup. Fame and Glory will be ridden by Jamie Spencer and is trained by Aidan O'Brien.

4 - The four wins by Yeats in consecutive years between 2006 and 2009 made the horse the most successful in the history of the race. The previous most successful horse was Sagaro with three wins, who also won the race in consecutive years.

5 - There have been a total of six trainers who have won the race five times. The only man to have achieved this in the modern era however, is Henry Cecil, who trained the winner on five occasions between 1979 and '87.

11 - The record amount of times that the jockey Lester Piggott won the race. Piggott first won the Gold Cup on Zarathustra in 1957. He would win the race again the following year and a further three times during the sixties. In the seventies Piggott would lift the Gold Cup three years in a row on Sagaro between 1975 and '77, before ending the decade with another victory in '79. Piggott would win for the tenth and eleventh time on Ardross in 1981 and '82.

15 - The number of runners in the 2011 Ascot Gold Cup.

42 - The price at the time of writing, of the rank outsider to win the race. Aaim To Prosper will be ridden by Ryan Moore.

100 - The amount in guineas that was awarded to Master Jackey, the winner of the first race in 1807.

255 - The number of seconds it took Sadeem to win the Gold Cup in 1988. Ridden by Greville Starkey, the time of 4:15:67 is the fastest winning time in the history of the race. However, Royal Gait finished the race ahead of Sadeem, only to be relegated to last place following a Stewards' Inquiry.

292 - The slowest winning time is the 292 seconds it took Lester Piggott to ride Twilight Alley to victory in 1963.

4023 - The distance in metres of the Ascot Gold Cup course, which is run over two miles and four furlongs.

250,000 - The prize money on off in the 2011 Ascot Gold Cup.

Comments (1)

1. Anonymous | 08 July 2011

   please find us somewhere on the web that has the post positions for the 2011 gold cup PLEASE......

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