Royal Ascot: Gold Cup Past Winners List

The Ascot Gold Cup is one of the highlights of the racing calendar and takes place on the Thursday of Royal Ascot – also known as ‘Ladies Day’.

Britain’s most prestigious long-distance Flat race, it dates back to 1807 when a horse named Master Jackey won 100 guineas for prevailing in the presence of King George III.

Over 200 renewals have been held since then, and as the Royal Ascot Gold Cup past winners list has grown, so has the prize money. This year’s prize money is a whopping £10m! (with £650,000 reserved for the winner).

The race is two miles, three furlongs and 210 yards (which equates to 4,014 metres) and runners must be at least four years old. Allowances of 3lb apply to mares and fillies, plus 1lb to four-year-olds.

The Ascot Gold Cup has been cancelled only twice in its history; in 1964 owing to a waterlogged track, and in 1940 because of World War II, although it was run at Newmarket from 1917–18 and 1941–44 due to conflicts and switched to York in 2005 while Ascot was refurbished.

Ascot Gold Cup records

Ireland’s Aidan O’Brien holds the record for the most successful Ascot Gold Cup trainer with eight victories. Yeats won four times in a row from 2006-2009. Since then, Fame and Glory, Leading Light, Order of St George and Kyprios have also taken the top spot once each.

The most successful jockey in Ascot Gold Cup history is Lester Piggott, who was known to his fellow riders as ‘The Long Fellow’. This was because he was tall and thin – honest. He won 11 Gold Cups over his career, including three victories on Sagaro (1975, 1976, 1977) and two with Ardross (1981, 1982).

Frankie Dettori recorded a fairytale victory on his final Gold Cup ride, with the aptly-named Courage Mon Ami showing plenty of grit to give the Italian a ninth win in the race – with three of those triumphs coming on Stradivarius (2018, 2019, 2020).