Dinos 'sore' after Gold Cup defeat
Mr Dinos is “very sore” after his run in the Ascot Gold Cup at the Royal meeting on Thursday.
The Paul Cole-trained gelding lost his stayers’ crown when finishing only sixth of the 13 runners behind impressive winner Papineau in a race run on very fast ground.
“Mr Dinos is really sore, but it’s jarred sore rather than a specific injury. Some horses can go on it, but I don’t think many go on it like that,” Cole said today.
“There’s nothing amiss with him otherwise. His blood test after the race was fine. As far as I’m concerned we need a faster pace for him.
“But that’s part of racing’s tactics. I think they went very fast for two and a half (furlongs) and then they all slowed down – Persian Punch used to make it a test all the way.
“I’m not really making excuses, but the horse raced on the firm at Sandown (in the Henry II) and I don’t think he fancied it twice. I’ll have to be a bit more careful where I run him.
“He’s got a bit to prove now but there aren’t that many races for him. There’s Goodwood to look at but it might be a bit firm there, so we might have to wait for the autumn.
“It all depends. We’ll keep him going anyway.”
The Whatcombe trainer also had news of smart juvenile Brecon Beacon, who finished runner-up to Whazzat in the Chesham Stakes yesterday on ground which had dried out even further to firm from the good to firm of Gold Cup day.
Cole expressed his concerns over the ground in the aftermath of the race, and his worries that it might have affected Brecon Beacon were unfortunately confirmed today.
“Something is definitely amiss with but we won’t really know what it is until he has some X-rays tomorrow,” he said.
“Ascot are obviously rebuilding the track and will probably put in a modern watering system, and it’s not before time. You get all the best horses running at Ascot. It needs to be safe and I don’t think it was.
“But it’s the end of an era and I’m sure the new system will work. They need an even watering system, because all horses should run on safe ground.”
