Yeats Glorious at Goodwood

1st August 2008

Evergreen stayer Yeats (7h Sadler's Wells x Lyndonville, by Top Ville) posted the 13th win of his illustrious career when taking out the Group Two Goodwood Cup on Thursday for the second time, waltzing away to score by a facile seven lengths.

Yet another superstar performer for Team Coolmore and Aidan O’Brien, the son of Sadler’s Wells earned millionaire status with this win, which sent his prizemoney haul over the million pound mark.

Racing Post - While nobody could describe this as the strongest of Goodwood Cups, there should be no underestimating yet another fabulous performance from the brilliant Yeats, who confirmed himself one of the modern era's great stayers by winning with overwhelming authority under the far from insignificant 5lb penalty he picked up for his third successive win in the Ascot Gold Cup six weeks previously.

According to Racing Post Ratings, Yeats’ best performance came when he gave Geordieland 5lb and a five-length beating in the corresponding race in 2006, when he broke the track record, and his joint-second best came in this year's Gold Cup.

This 13th career win, which took his earnings past the £1m mark, must rank somewhere close to that sort of level, and it arguably exceeds it. Still an entire, yet as good as ever at the age of seven, he really is a most remarkable horse. With Aidan O'Brien absent, no immediate programme was forthcoming, but the Melbourne Cup presumably remains a possibility, and so does the Irish St Leger.

Yeats is one of more than 70 Group One winners by champion sire Sadler’s Wells who was only retired from active duty this year.

A superbly related horse, Yeats is a half-brother to Group winners Solskjaer and Tsukuba Symphony being from the good producing Top Ville mare Lyndonville.