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Stradivarius Completes Goodwood Cup Hat-Trick

History was made at the Glorious Goodwood Festival on Tuesday 30 July 2019 when the mighty Stradivarius won the Qatar Goodwood Cup Stakes for the third consecutive occasion.

The horse was first victorious in this race as a three-year-old and he then obliged twelve months ago before completing the hat-trick this week. It was a marvellous performance from a horse who was kept patient by jockey Frankie Dettori before striking for home.

The result was rarely in doubt as Stradivarius kicked for home, with the horse pleasing punters who had backed the winner at 4/5 and there was no other runner in the race who was able to live with the horse’s turn of speed.

Cross Counter ran on gamely and Dee Ex Bee got within a length of the actual winner to finish second in the race, although Stradivarius will now go down as one of the best horses that has ever run at the Glorious Goodwood meeting.

As usual, we enjoyed a flying dismount from Dettori as he celebrated the first consecutive hat-trick that has been achieved in the 200-year history of the race, with Double Trigger the only other horse to manage three wins.

However, the latter didn’t win three successive Goodwood Cups and it was a result that clearly delighted John Gosden, with the trainer declaring himself satisfied with the overall performance.

Gosden was pleased with the way that Dettori rode calmly as the horses went round the bend, with the trainer admitting that he wasn’t going to overtrain Stradivarius in the lead-up to the race.

It was third victory of the season for this impressive beast, with Stradivarius having won the Ascot Gold Cup in June when winning over two miles and four furlongs, with the horse momentarily looking to be in danger at the Royal meeting before showing that famous turn of pace.

Dee Ex Bee was second home in that race too, with trainer Mark Johnston now having seen his horse been runner-up to Stradivarius on successive occasions in Group 1 encounters.

Stradivarius was the winner of the Yorkshire Cup Stakes to light the blue touch paper for the 2019 season, although this is now a winning run which stretches over eight races for a horse that is named after a fine violin.