A prestigious Group 1 contest, run over the marathon distance of two and a half miles on the third day of Royal Ascot, a.k.a. ‘Ladies Day’, the Gold Cup is the oldest race run at the Royal Meeting. The Gold Cup was first run in 1807, with King George III and Queen Charlotte in attendance, and in its long, illustrious history has been won by some of the finest specialist stayers ever to grace the turf. The roll of honour includes the likes of Sagaro, who won back-to-back renewals in 1975, 1976 and 1977, Stradivarius, who did likewise in 2018, 2019 and 2020, and Yeats, described by jockey Johnny Murtagh as the “ultimate heavyweight champion” after winning the Gold Cup four years running, in 2006, 2007, 2008 and 2009.
The 2013 renewal of the Gold Cup was memorable for the fact that, for the first time in over two centuries, it was won by a horse owned by the reigning monarch. That horse was, of course, Estimate, a four-year-old mare owned by Queen Elizabeth II and trained by Sir Michael Stoute. Already a Royal Ascot winner, having easily justified favouritism in the Group 3 Queen’s Vase in 2012, Estimate did so again in the Group 3 Sagaro Stakes, also at Ascot, on the first start of her four-year-old campaign and was consequently sent off favourite for the Gold Cup.
Ridden by her regular jockey, Ryan Moore, but making her first foray beyond two miles, and into Group 1 company, Estimate was driven into the lead with a furlong to run. She was hard pressed by the eventual second and third, Simenon and Top Trip, but despite edging left under pressure, held on gamely in the closing stages to beat that pair by a neck and a length. The Gold Cup trophy is traditionally presented to the winning owner by the reigning monarch, but as, on this occasion, those two were one and the same, the Queen was instead presented with the trophy by Prince Andrew, Duke of York.