Irish Derby winner Santiago could be facing his toughest test to date at Glorious Goodwood later in the season with his trainer Aidan O'Brien thinking about running him in the two mile Goodwood Cup.
The three year old son of Derby winner Authorized really burst onto the racing scene this year having landed both his contests in fine style starting with a dominating display in the Queen’s Vase at Royal Ascot.
He then dropped back two furlongs to contest the Irish Derby at the Curragh last Saturday and he managed to stay the trip the best of the pack just fending off stablemate Tiger Moth to take the Classic honours.
After landing his first Group One event, Santiago is now the ante-post favourite for the St Leger at Doncaster but the Ballydoyle handler has raised the possibility of taking on John Gosden’s leading stayer Stradivarius over two miles first.
How about this for a potential match up...
— The Winners Enclosure (@TWEnclosure) July 1, 2020
AP O'Brien hasn't ruled out sending Irish Derby hero SANTIAGO to the Goodwood Cup to face Stradivarius! 😱
Would he stand a chance of beating the long distance GOAT?! 👀
(Credit: @RacingTV)pic.twitter.com/HTLqjlbDAY
Stradivarius, as we all know landed his third Gold Cup at the royal meeting in consecutive years writing his name into the festivals folklore and he will be looking to land his fourth win in the Goodwood Cup.
(Credit AtTheRaces) O’Brien said: “It could be straight to the St Leger, but we have it in our head he could go to Goodwood – we’ll just see how he is between now and then.
“We’ll give him a week before we have a good chat with the lads (Coolmore), so it will be straight to Doncaster or the two-mile race at Goodwood.
“It will depend on what the lads want, but we’ve always thought he was a horse who would stay very well and he showed that at Ascot.
“At the Curragh you have to stay very well as well. We had other horses in, so we knew it would be a test.”