Cape Of Good Hope, trained in Hong Kong by David Oughton and running in England for the fifth time in the last two years and the second time this week, became the first horse trained in that Far Eastern territory to win at Royal Ascot when he just got the better of a long battle with Galeota to take the Golden Jubilee Stakes.
"It means an awful lot to me, to come back here and win a prize like this," said Oughton, who trained at Findon in Sussex, where his father Alan and mother Diane trained before him, for five years before going to Hong Kong in 1987.
He bought Cape Of Good Hope privately out of David Elsworth's stable as a back end three-year-old four years ago on behalf of Ron Carstairs, who saw the horse win his first five races but sadly died a couple of years ago. "He would have loved this moment and we feel that he is still with us," said Carstairs' widow Patricia and son Guy.
Last year Cape Of Good Hope ran in the same two races, the King's Stand and the Golden Jubilee, and Oughton feels that he was a bit unlucky to be beaten in the latter. "He got a bit of a bump about two furlongs out and was beaten only a neck," he said, having explained that he brought the horse to England to avoid having to take on Hong Kong star Silent Witness. "There were just no races for him out there unless we ran against Silent Witness and so we decided to come to England with him.
Last year Cape Of Good Hope followed his Ascot efforts by running in the July Cup at Newmarket, but that is not on the agenda this time round.
"He will be going back to Hong Kong on Monday and have a break there before going to Japan for the big sprint there in October," said Oughton. "Then he will run in the International Sprint in Hong Kong in December and then maybe go back to Australia again where he was successful in February.
"He is amazingly tough. He has been at it for a long time and been all round the world, to Japan, to Australia and to England twice and he takes it all in his stride."
The winner's rider Mick Kinane said: "it turned into a bit of a battle over the last 100 yards but fortunately he was up to the task. I rode this horse in the first leg of the Global Sprint Challenge when we finished third and because of other commitments could not ride him when he won the second leg. I had committed to Somnus for the season and David was very happy that I could ride this horse because I knew the horse so well. I knew he'd come on a lot for his run on Tuesday, and it all worked out well."
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