• Irish trainer had gone close with Vinnie Roe and Vintage Crop • Winner may run in Melbourne Cup before return to hurdles But for the sunshine, it could have been a scene from Cheltenham in the closing stages of the Gold Cup here today. Courage and stamina were all that mattered in the last of the 20 furlongs and it was Rite Of Passage, placed in a hurdle race at the jump racing Festival back in March, who had the grit to beat Age Of Aquarius by a neck. So much of the summer programme is focused on speed, casting horses as dragsters to burn their way to success but, on this day at Ascot, they are more like monster trucks. Quick they are not. The spectacle comes from the sheer power they expend to reach top speed and then stay there, from one punishing furlong to the next, and this Gold Cup was a copybook example. Age Of Aquarius had been a jumpy, sweaty mess in the paddock and drifted out to 8-1, having been second-favourite in the morning, as Manifest and Ask vied for the right to start favourite. Ask won that battle, going off at 11-4, but both he and Manifest – who moved towards the lead like a good horse four furlongs out but ran out of stamina soon afterwards – were beaten two furlongs out as Age Of Aquarius struck for home. For a moment, it seemed that Johnny Murtagh, successful in the last two Gold Cups on Yeats, had made a decisive move. Like a tanker finally reaching fourth gear, though, Rite Of Passage started to eat into his lead under Pat Smullen and for the next quarter of a mile there was no more than a neck between them. Age Of Aquarius did not weaken but Rite Of Passage, a 20-1 chance, had enough strength in his gallop to carry him into a narrow lead just past the furlong pole. Murtagh asked every question of his partner – picking up a three-day suspension as a result – but he could not claw back the deficit. Purple Moon was six lengths further away in third, while Ask was only fifth and Manifest finished tailed off. “It’s a special day and a race I’ve always wanted to win,” Dermot Weld, Rite Of Passage’s trainer, said. “I love training stayers. I’ve been blessed with many good sprinters, but training horses over a number of years is my joy, keeping them sound and keeping them right. “I was beaten a neck with Vinnie Roe and less than a length with Vintage Crop [in previous Gold Cups]. There were no excuses, we just got beaten by better horses on the day, and Lester Piggott said to me many years ago that there’s a big difference between horses that go two miles and horses that go two and a half. “That’s one of the reasons I ran this horse, because I realised we might not have the speed of a lot of horses in this race, but what Lester said is so true, there’s a huge difference.” Rite Of Passage has now won all three of his starts on the Flat and was, with hindsight, the good thing of the decade when 7-1 for a handicap at Leopardstown in November. He may have had another two stones to carry that day if the handicapper had known he was a Gold Cup winner waiting to happen. Having finished third in the Neptune Novice Hurdle at Cheltenham in March, he is also likely to go back over jumps in time, but Weld has grand plans on the Flat before that. “In time, he’ll obviously go back over hurdles,” he said, “but today was my first Flat target for him and the Melbourne Cup is my second Flat target for him, so we’ll see. I also have Profound Beauty as a possible runner in that race, but it looks like an obvious target for him.” Rite Of Passage is a top price of 20-1 for the Champion Hurdle next March.The ground at Ascot this week has been unusually fast and Rite Of Passage’s winning time was the latest to go into the books as a new track record, albeit only since the course was relaid before the 2006 meeting. “It was a really, really top-class race,” Murtagh said afterwards. “They went a hell of a gallop and my lad stayed well. He loved the ground and I thought I had it won turning for home, but just got caught in the last 60 yards, He’s a very brave horse and I’m sick.” Age Of Aquarius was the first horse from Aidan O’Brien’s yard to acquit itself with real credit this week and the stable did not even field a runner at the meeting on Wednesday. They have some leading chances tomorrow, but are playing catch-up with the Godolphin operation, who saddled their second winner of the meeting when Hibaayeb strode away with the Ribblesdale Stakes. Hibaayeb took the Fillies’ Mile here last autumn, but finished second-last in the 1,000 Guineas last month before running third in a Group One in France. This win appeared to take her form to a new level, for all that the opposition was relatively weak for a Group Two. She may now travel to The Curragh for the Irish Oaks next month. Frankie Dettori, her jockey, is now level with Richard Hughes and Ryan Moore on two winners at the meeting, with 12 races still to be run. Horse racing Royal Ascot Greg Wood guardian.co.uk
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Dermot Weld finally wins Ascot’s Gold Cup with Rite Of Passage
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