Open contest in prospect for the Longines Sagaro Stakes at Ascot

The £60,000 Group Three encounter is considered to be one of the most important trial races for the Gold Cup on the third day of next month’s Royal Ascot meeting and is always an eagerly-anticipated encounter with this year’s renewal being no different.

The Sagaro Stakes is open to horses aged four years or older and is run over a distance of two miles at Ascot either in late April or early May. Formerly known as the Paradise Stakes and originally held at Hurst Park until it was transferred to the prestigious Berkshire course in 1963, it was renamed the Sagaro Stakes in 1978 after the great Sagaro, the winner of Ascot’s Gold Cup in each of the preceding three seasons.

Having been given Group 3 status in 1983, a waterlogged track meant it was not until a year later that it was first run as a Group race. Since then four horses have won the Sagaro Stakes before going on to win the Gold Cup at Royal Ascot in the same season. Gildoran won both events in 1984, Double Trigger achieved similar in 1995 and also winning the Sagaro Stakes in 1996, Colour Vision won both events in 2012 and the following year Estimate followed up under Ryan Moore.

The records show that six horses have won the race on two occasions and of current jockeys Frankie Detorri has won the race four times between 1992 and 2014.

This year’s renewal promises to be something of an open contest with only six runners declared to feature. Despite trailing home last of 16 runners on his first start of 2018 in the Dubai Gold Cup at Meydan, Irish prospect Torcedor is likely to set the standard others will have to follow based on his previous form. He will be closely followed by David Elsworth’s Doncaster Cup hero Desert Skyline who makes his seasonal reappearance and will have last year’s winning jockey Silvestre de Sousa at the helm.

They will be challenged by Peter Niven’s stable star Clever Cookie, the Andrew Balding-trained Montaly, Brian Meehan’s Raheen House and Time To Study from Mark Johnston’s yard who complete an intriguing line-up for what promises to be some great midweek racing action.