Royal Ascot 2024: Last 5 winners of Gold Cup

The latest iteration of the historic and prestigious Royal Ascot is just over the horizon, and the Gold Cup will be a race to keep an eye on once more.

The 2024 renewal of the highly prestigious and iconic Royal Ascot will soon be getting underway, with the 5 days of world-class racing action at Ascot Racecourse taking place from Tuesday, 18th to Saturday, 22nd June 2024. The third day will see the Gold Cup, the race meeting’s most prestigious race, take place once more.

Ascot Racecourse has a tremendous history, and it was opened 313 years ago in 1711 by the then-reigning British Monarch Queen Anne. On 11th August that year, the first organised race took place there, and it was called ‘Her Majesty’s Plate’ with prize money amounting to 100 Guineas in total. The seven participating horses were required to carry 12 stone and the race itself consisted of three four mile long heats. The horse with the best stamina would be the winner.

Until 1783, all jockeys who took part in racing could wear anything they liked, but this year saw that change forever. From 1783 onwards and to the present day, all jockeys were now required to wear the colours of their horse’s owner.

Fast-forward to 1807, the year that saw the inaugural Gold Cup contested. It remains the oldest race still run as part of Royal Ascot on an annual basis. Each winner receives the trophy to keep permanently, and the first champion of this now highly prestigious race was Master Jockey.

Each year, there is a Royal procession on all five days, and this tradition began in 1825, when King George VI was the reigning monarch. He was the first to lead the procession up the Straight Mile. Of course, this tradition is still taking place, and King Charles III and Queen Camilla will be the faces of the Royal Procession of 2024.

Back to the Ascot Gold Cup itself, there are plenty of records that stand as a testament to the plethora of tremendous and iconic jockeys that have taken part in the rather famous race over the years. As of the time of writing, the legendary Lester Piggott holds the record for the most wins of any other jockey in the entirety of this race’s history with no less than 11 wins, with his last coming with Ardross in 1982.

Piggott’s other 10 wins in the Gold Cup at Ascot came in 1957 (with Zarathustra), 1958 (with Gladness), 1961 (with Pandofell), 1963 (with Twilight Alley), 1965 (with Fighting Charlie), 1975, 1976, 1977 (with Sagaro), 1979 (with Le Moss) and finally 1981 (with Ardross).

Here, we are going to take a look at the five most recent winners of the prestigious and historic Gold Cup at Royal Ascot.

2019 & 2020 – Stradivarius

The first entry onto this list is from three-time Ascot Gold Cup Winner Stradivarius, who, in winning the 2020 title, secured a second consecutive Gold Cup win. With three wins, Stradivarius is one behind matching Yeats’ all-time current record of four.

In 2019, legendary Jockey Frankie Dettori rode Stradivarius to victory for the second time, just like he did back in 2018. Gold Cup number three, of course, came in 2020. The wins in 2019 and 2020 came off the back of great performances from Dettori, but the latter is the most memorable. It saw Stradivarius secure a 10-length victory. This win also made the six-year-old become the first horse since Yeats to win more than two Gold Cups at Royal Ascot.

2021 – Subjectivist

Next up is Subjectivist, who won the year after Stradivarius’ third Gold Cup win at Ascot. In 2021, Jockey Joe Fanning rode Subjectivist to victory for his and the horse’s first-ever career wins in the Ascot Gold Cup. The race itself saw Subjectivist hold off the closest challenger, Princess Zoe, to win by a margin of five lengths.

2022 – Kyprios

Ryan Moore is no stranger to wins in the Gold Cup at Royal Ascot, with his three wins coming in 2013 (with HM Queen Elizabeth’s Estimate), 2016 (with Order of St George) and most recently in 2022 with Kyprios. In his third and most recent victory in this famous race, Moore managed to ride Kyprios to a narrow half a length victory ahead of Mojo Star, who had to settle for a second place finish in the end.

Aidan O’Brien has the most wins in the Gold Cup of any trainer, and he extended his record to 8 with Kyprios in 2022. His other 7 wins have come with Yeats (2006, 2007, 2008, 2009), Fame and Glory (2011), Leading Light (2014) and with Order of St George (2016).

2023 – Courage Mon Ami

Finally, we move on to the most recent winner of the Ascot Gold Cup, Frankie Dettori, riding Courage Mon Ami, who would come out on top as the winner of the 2023 renewal of this famous and historic race. At the end of an enthralling and tense race, Dettori was able to ride Courage Mon Ami to a three-quarter-length victory over Coltrane, who ended up as the runner-up in that year’s Ascot Gold Cup race.

This was the legendary Frankie Dettori’s 9th win in the Gold Cup, with the others coming with Drum Taps (1992 & 1993), Kayf Tara (1998), Papineau (2004), Colour Vision (2012) and the aforementioned Stradivarius in 2018, 2019 and 2020.

With the 2024 renewal of the iconic and illustrious Royal Ascot underway in a matter of weeks at Ascot Racecourse, excitement and anticipation are certainly on the rise amongst horse racing fans.

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