Horse Racing: Golden Yeats a Hero Among Lion Hearts

The Ascot Gold Cup did not celebrate its 200th anniversary yesterday in quite the rude health of its first centenary, back in the days when it was a regular target for Derby winners. These days it is speed that sells in the international bloodstock market, and yearlings with stamina-laden pedigrees might just as well walk into the auction ring with three legs.

But if there is to be any renaissance of interest in stayers from a breeding point of view a horse like Yeats, who took the Gold Cup for the second year running yesterday, could be the one to do it.

Fast enough to win a Coronation Cup at Epsom, and to quicken with more than two miles of turf already behind him yesterday, he also stayed on through every yard of the final furlong. Many owners, you have to hope, would want a horse like him.

Yesterday's success was not quite as emphatic as his four-length victory 12 months ago, but was not in any doubt from the moment he hit the front just over two furlongs from home. Geordieland finished fast, having been held up in last through the early stages, but Mick Kinane needed only to keep pushing on Yeats to win by a length and a half.

It will be for John Magnier to decide whether to promote Yeats as a Flat stallion alongside names such as Montjeu, or pack him off to join Brian Boru and Westerner, among others, on the National Hunt list. For the moment, though, Coolmore have a horse at the height of his powers, one who has joined a select group to have won two Gold Cups and could yet return next year in an attempt to emulate Sagaro, the only horse to have won three.

"From this day last year the plan was always to come back, so this is a big relief," said Aidan O'Brien, Yeats's trainer. "He's a very exciting horse and it would be great to come back here again next year. Everyone wants to be here and, in this part of the world, the Gold Cup is the big staying race."

In the meantime there is the distinct possibility that Yeats will travel to Australia for the Melbourne Cup in November, a race in which he finished seventh last year having hit the front half a mile from home.

"He's a stronger horse this year, and he's bulkier and quicker," O'Brien added. "Often you'll worry when a horse bulks up like that, but if you try to stop them you can stop them from improving, too. Some people run better when they're heavy and some run better when they're light, so we didn't stop him getting heavier.

"Last year we went to Goodwood with him after Ascot, but I'd think there's a chance we won't go there this year, and we'll run in the Irish St Leger and then go on to Melbourne, unless he gets a ridiculous weight which would mean there was no point in running.

"We learnt a lot about the Melbourne Cup from running in the race last year, about how Australian staying races are run, and we'd know a lot more if we went back. They tend to go hard and then pull back and go hard again, whereas over here the pace is more consistent."

Kinane, who won the Melbourne Cup on Vintage Crop in 1993, feels that Yeats is at the mercy of the Australian handicapper. "He's developed into a beautiful individual," Kinane said. "He's matured and he felt marvelous today, he really enjoys his racing. But the thing with the Melbourne Cup is that he will have a big problem with weight.

"They will put as much on him as they can, he'll be weighted up to his full ability and ground conditions there would be a huge factor. When you're going all that way, you want a bit up your sleeve."

The major disappointment of yesterday's race was the lack of any challenge from Sergeant Cecil, probably the most popular stayer in training, who was sent off second-favorite but was always to the rear and trailed home last of the 14 runners.

"I don't think there was anything wrong with him," said Jimmy Fortune, Sergeant Cecil's jockey. "He just ran a very flat race."

Geordieland was three-quarters of a length behind Sergeant Cecil in receipt of 5lb in the Yorkshire Cup last month, which suggests that Sergeant Cecil would have made a race of it at least on his best form. At the age of eight, though, his chance may now have gone while Geordieland may have more scope to improve and mount a challenge next year.

"He would win a Gold Cup in an ordinary year," Jamie Osborne, Geordieland's trainer, said, "but we've come second to an exceptional stayer. We'll try to avoid Yeats next time - it makes no sense to keep taking him on and the Goodwood Cup is an option."