O'Brien aiming for Yeats gold

Aidan O’Brien is hoping Yeats can leave his disappointing seasonal reappearance run at Navan well behind him as he bids for an unprecedented fourth Gold Cup at Royal Ascot.

The eight-year-old finished a distant sixth on his comeback run in the Vintage Crop Stakes in April but O’Brien expects a much better showing at his spiritual home.

“He’s well at the moment. Obviously he’s a year older and a year wiser than he was last year and than every year that he was before,” O’Brien told At The Races.

“He’s fine, we are happy with him so far but like I said, he is older and wiser and he minds himself.

“He’s a marvellous horse and he’s one of those that you sit back in a morning and look at him because he is such a unique horse.

“We are happy with him. Obviously his first run this year was disappointing but it was in bad ground. We are hoping to get him back at Ascot and seeing him run.

“It was very soft at Navan and very early in the year. It wasn’t a fast-run race, they went steady and then quickened. He had been away a few times but he was still very relaxed before that.

“To have him in top gear at that time of the year would have made it hard to get him to peak again at Ascot, so we think he has come forward since then.

“I wouldn’t read too much into it and hopefully he will leave that well behind him.”

Godolphin are set to field Veracity and trainer Saeed bin Suroor is delighted with his charge.

The five-year-old finished third in the Yorkshire Cup last time and the form has since been boosted by the winner Ask.

Bin Suroor added: “I like Veracity in the Gold Cup, he ran well at York last time and the winner won the Coronation Cup.”