Trip To Paris Rallies Inside to Win Gold Cup
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Spotting room along the rail near the quarter-pole, jockey Graham Lee angled Trip To Paris inside and the 4-year-old Champs Elysees gelding thrived along the rail, finding another gear in the marathon's late stages to secure his first stakes win in the Gold Cup (Eng-I) June 18 at Royal Ascot.
La Grange Partnership's Trip To Paris completed the 2 1/2-mile race in 4:22.55 to post an upset victory over runner-up Kingfisher, a two-time stakes winner campaigned by Derrick Smith, Susan Magnier, and Michael Tabor; and favored Forgotten Rules, a Moyglare Stud Farm homebred who won last year's QIPCO British Champions Long Distance Cup (Eng-II).
In April and May this season Trip To Paris registered three straight handicap wins in England at distances of 1 1/2 miles, two miles, and about 2 3/8 miles. Trained by Ed Dunlop, Trip To Paris entered Thursday's race off a runner-up finish in the about two-mile Cantor Fitzgerald Investment Trusts Henry II Stakes (Eng-III) May 28 at Sandown.
Bred in Ireland by Paul and T. J. Monaghan, Trip To Paris is out of the Fantastic Light mare La Grande Zoa.
Earlier in the day Smith, Magnier, and Tabor were not denied in the Norfolk Stakes (Eng-II) for 2-year-olds in which Irish-bred Waterloo Bridge, by Zoffany, prevailed under jockey Ryan Moore.
Moore picked up his seventh winner of the meet later in the day when he guided Curvy to a clear victory in the Ribblesdale Stakes (Eng-II), a 1 1/4-mile stakes for 3-year-old fillies. Also owned by the Coolmore-associated Smith, Magnier, and Tabory, Curvy is a daughter of Galileo.
Juddmonte Farms homebred Time Test, by Dubawi, picked up his first stakes win in the Tercentenary Stakes (Eng-III), a 1 1/4-mile race for 3-year-olds. Trained by Roger Charlton, favorited Time Test was guided to the easy win by Frankie Dettori.