Gold Cup winner Trip To Paris set for new career

Trip To Paris, whose meteoric rise up the ladder was crowned with victory in the 2015 Gold Cup at Royal Ascot, has been retired.

The six-year-old, last seen in action when well beaten in the Gold Cup last month won by Big Orange, will be based at the National Stud in Newmarket and retrained for showing and parading with Retraining of Racehorses.

Trained by Ed Dunlop throughout his career, Trip To Paris took his form to several new levels as a four-year-old after being gelded over the winter.

Progressing from an 88-rated handicapper at the beginning of 2015, the son of Champs Elysees landed the Chester Cup off 95 under Graham Lee before finishing runner-up to Vent De Force in Sandown’s Group 3 Henry II Stakes.

That performance encouraged connections to pitch Trip To Paris into the Gold Cup, and he justified their faith with a stirring length and a quarter defeat of Kingfisher.

He subsequently narrowly failed to concede his Group 1 penalty to Big Orange in the Goodwood Cup and later that year finished second in the Caulfield Cup and fourth in the Melbourne Cup.

He sustained an injury in the Japan Cup on his last start of 2015 and was never the same horse again.

Dunlop said: “We had an incredible time with him. He was a cheap horse who came from nowhere to win the Gold Cup for a small syndicate [La Grange Partnership] – it’s a great story.

“He was an amazing horse for us, and retires fresh and well. He'll be retrained and viewed by the general public. I'm sure it will be a great life for him.”

Trip To Paris in numbers

6 age

27 runs

6 wins

£808,062 earnings

116 Best Racing Post Rating

5 countries raced in – Britain, Ireland, Australia, Japan, UAE

1 Group 1 win