'He could be a very good stayer' - Ascot Gold Cup favourite Scandinavia takes next step in well-trodden path to royal meeting

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The Vintage Crop-Saval Beg-Ascot Gold Cup route is a path well trodden by Ballydoyle's best stayers, and having won the Vintage Crop last month, last season's St Leger winner Scandinavia takes in the middle leg at Leopardstown on Friday.

Kyprios won all three races in 2022 and 2024, as did Fame And Glory in 2011 and Yeats in 2007. Although he's still at the start of his four-year-old campaign and only broke his maiden 12 months ago, Scandinavia has achieved plenty in a short space of time, beating older horses in a Group 1 when landing the Goodwood Cup last year before becoming a Classic winner at Doncaster.

 He produced a typically power-packed finish in the Vintage Crop, galloping a length and a half clear of the reopposing Dallas Star and will start at prohibitive odds in the Saval Beg Levmoss Stakes, a Group 3 over a mile and three-quarters.

Scandinavia heads for home in the Vintage Crop StakesCredit: Patrick McCann (racingpost.com/photos)

Scandinavia is four from four since the cheekpieces first went on in the Bahrain Trophy Stakes at Newmarket in July, and he's been phenomenally progressive. 

The Justify colt, a half-brother to Group 1 winner Above The Curve and whose dam is a half-sister to the great Giant's Causeway, is the new kid on the block in the staying division and is already a best-priced 2-1 favourite to land the Ascot Gold Cup on June 18, with reigning champion Trawlerman a 100-30 chance.

It's hard to see any of his rivals standing in his way again at Leopardstown given trainer Aidan O'Brien believed he would come on plenty for his reappearance, and he said: "It was always the plan to go here on the way to the Gold Cup with Scandinavia and we were delighted with his first run back at Navan. He could be a very good stayer, he has a great mind and is only a four-year-old."

Scandinavia grinds it out in the St Leger under Tom MarquandCredit: Grossick Racing (racingpost.com/photos)

Leinster, trained by Joseph O'Brien, is entitled to strip fitter for his fourth in the Vintage Crop. The Camelot gelding landed the Irish St Leger trial last year, beating Dallas Star by four and a quarter lengths, before underperforming in the Irish St Leger when last of nine behind stablemate Al Riffa. He can chase Scandinavia home.

The Donnacha O'Brien-trained Happy Pharoah was progressive last season, landing the Petingo Handicap at this track off a mark of 99 in September and will appreciate the return to a sounder surface after finishing last of seven on his return at the Curragh, but still has a lot to find. Le Destrier, a new recruit for Willie Mullins, has been absent since finishing second in a Listed race in France in June 2024 and it will be interesting to see how he fares on his return.

Gold Cup (Royal Ascot, June 18)
bet365: 2 Scandinavia, 3 Trawlerman, 12 Caballo De Mar, Lambourn, Rahiebb, 14 Illinois, Sweet William, 16 bar.

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