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Ascot Gold Cup 2016: Max To Destroy Strong O'Brien Challenge

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Posted in: Royal Ascot Tips

Timeform preview the Group 1 Gold Cup, set to take place on Thursday (ladies day) at Royal Ascot 2016, and advise a bet.

Click here to back Max Dynamite at 7/1 for the 2016 Queen Anne Stakes

Aidan O’Brien has had plenty of Royal Ascot success in recent years, but his record in the Gold Cup is particularly impressive, winning six of the last ten renewals (including on four successive occasions between 2006 and 2009 with Yeats) and saddling the second on another two occasions.


O’Brien would have probably felt a tad unlucky not to have made it seven from the last ten in the 2015 renewal of the Gold Cup, too, when Kingfisher met plenty of trouble in-running and got in to the clear all too late to throw down a proper challenge to the winner Trip To Paris (who is out of this year’s Gold Cup due to a tendon injury). Kingfisher had been prominent in the betting for the 2016 Gold Cup immediately after last year’s race, though he has also been met with an injury setback.


As ever though, O’Brien has plenty of strength in depth, and still looks to have an excellent chance of landing yet another Gold Cup courtesy of impressive Irish St Leger winner Order of St George and English St Leger second Bondi Beach, who currently occupy the top two places in the market with most bookmakers.


While Bondi Beach looked fortunate on the day to be awarded the English St Leger by the Doncaster stewards post-race after finishing a head-second to Simple Verse at the line (a decision that was later reversed, which re-awarded the race to Simple Verse) there was no doubt about the winner of the Irish equivalent, in which Order of St George – who bypassed Doncaster – won impressively by eleven lengths.


Order of St George is the pick of the O’Brien pair on the form he showed at the Curragh that day, and after recovering from a setback earlier on in the season, he may well make his return to action in the Saval Beg at Leopardstown – a race well used in the past by O’Brien for his Gold Cup horses – at the beginning of June.


The fact he has met with that setback, however, makes his current price of around 2/1 look on the short side, while the general 7/1 about Bondi Beach also looks on the skinny side after he made hard work of justifying odds of 1/9 when beating just two other rivals in the Vintage Crop Stakes at Navan last time.


Instead, the bet of the race at this stage could be Willie Mullins’ Max Dynamite, who enjoyed a progressive first season on the Flat for his new all-conquering handler, starting off with a second in the Northumberland Plate at Newcastle.


Max Dynamite then won the Group 2 Lonsdale Cup at York on his second Flat start for Mullins by four and a half lengths in impressive fashion from Mizzou – who looks set to contest the Gold Cup again after a good reappearance win in the Sagaro Stakes over Clever Cookie – before looking unlucky (short of room) to only finish second in the Melbourne Cup on his third and final start.


Max Dynamite is reportedly set to make his reappearance at Sandown in late-May, and with the Gold Cup having been on his radar for some time according to powerful owner Rich Richie, whose colours are also carried by many top National Hunt horses including Faugheen, Vautour and Douvan, he makes plenty of appeal at odds of around 7/1.


Click here to back Max Dynamite at 7/1 for the 2016 Queen Anne Stakes


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