Fame and glory comes to few

By Alan Conway

Indeed it was a royal occasion last week. In a week which saw the So You Think bubble burst and the freakish Frankel bandwagon roll on, perhaps the greatest achievement of the week dipped slightly under the radar. Make no mistake however, Fame And Glory winning the Ascot Gold Cup will rank right at the very top of achievements when the 2011 Flat season is reviewed.

In recent times the Ascot Gold Cup became a victim of fashion. Commercial breeders shunned the staying prowess needed to win the stamina sapping event in favour of fast twitch speed which meant that many an Ascot Gold Cup winner failed at stud if they were retired to stud at all.

But when Yeats came along and breathed new life into the Gold Cup suddenly it came back into vogue. His remarkable four straight wins in the race not only secured his place in racing history but it did more for the race than any horse previously.

Now Fame And Glory has come along and has the chance to pick up where Yeats left off. Yet if Fate had its way Fame And Glory would not have been anywhere near Ascot last Thursday. Rather he would be at Coolmore Stud passing on his genes to the next generation.

In 2009 Fame And Glory could have been a dual Derby winner. He was denied the Epsom crown by the legendary Sea The Stars. Had Sea The Stars not been around Fame And Glory would have won the Epsom Derby and arguably the Irish Champion Stakes later on that season.

Had he won those races owner John Magnier conceded that Fame And Glory would be at stud now. Yet he raced on last year and landed two more Group 1 prizes, and many assumed he would be off to stud again. Yet again Fate intervened.

When Coolmore purchased a majority stake in So You Think last year it looked like Fame And Glory would be playing second fiddle to that horse along with St Nicholas Abbey who was to be kept in training following his truncated three-year-old career. Yet Fame And Glory was given the chance to show just how deep and wide his talent was.

He debuted in the listed Vintage Crop Stakes at Navan at the start of the season but, to many an eye, he didn’t impress in only managing to scramble home from Nebula Storm. That didn’t look like Gold Cup winning form and when he only just scraped home in the Saval Beg Stakes, confidence in him, from a punter’s perspective, began to wain.

But Fame And Glory would prove the doubters wrong when he won the Gold Cup with a performance that had class written all over it. It’s rare that you see a race where one horse is just a cut above the rest. That’s what happened with Fame And Glory last Thursday and with normal luck over the coming years, the son of Montjeu can prove again that fame and glory only comes to few.

By Alan Conway