Stradivarius receives “quite a lot of fan mail” his trainer John Gosden told AFP which is sure to become a flood if he equals Yeats’s record of four Ascot Gold Cup’s (2006-09) on Thursday.

The Gold Cup is the flagship race of the five day Royal Ascot meeting, which will welcome 12,000 spectators per day compared to none last year due to the coronavirus pandemic lockdown.

Gosden could not be happier with his old warrior, who is bidding for a fifth successive success at Royal Ascot as he won the Queen’s Vase in 2017 before his three consecutive Gold Cups.

Gosden — whose other stable star Palace Pier bids to get him off to a dream start in Tuesday’s Queen Anne Stakes — says he sees similarities between Stradivarius and his 50-year-old superstar jockey Frankie Dettori.

“They are a couple of old boys who get on rather well,” Gosden told AFP by phone on Sunday.

“The two of them are not quite yet sitting in their deck chairs staring out to sea on Brighton seafront.

“They are good athletes despite their combined ages.

“Stradivarius is a seven-year-old full horse and I can assure you Frankie is a full horse.

“They are a pretty professional pair, though, I would say Stradivarius’s behaviour is like Frankie at 28 when he was going to discotheques.”

Stradivarius arrives at his fiefdom on Thursday having earned just shy of £3 million ($4.2 million) with 17 victories in his 27 starts.

“I am very very pleased with him,” said Gosden…

Click here read the rest