Leading stayer Stradivarius is said to be in rude health ahead of his next contest a week on Friday when he bids to land the Weatherbys Hamilton Stayers' Million bonus for a second year since its existence.
The John Gosden trained five-year-old is now just one step away from completing history of being the first horse to land wins in the Yorkshire Cup, Ascot Gold Cup, Goodwood Cup and the Lonsdale Cup in two consecutive season's.
The son of Sea The Stars although coming out the Goodwood Cup well, his next contest at York comes round pretty quickly and Gosden is just hoping he can get him exactly where he wants him to be before the race.
(Credit Racing Post) "He's as cheeky as ever! He's full of himself, a very happy horse. He's training up nicely for the race. Obviously, the Goodwood Cup was not that long ago, so we come into the Lonsdale just trying to keep the freshness in him.
“He probably had tougher races coming through last year – the Gold Cup last year was a formidable race, whereas they probably didn’t go as hard this year. Therefore, for him, it didn’t drain him so much.
“We're looking forward to the race. He did struggle in it last year – no doubt about that. It’s quite a lot of races, but they are spaced well and he has already been to York once this year for the Yorkshire Cup.”
Gosden also has his super-mare Enable who is set to go to York next week and is the 1/5 favourite to land the Group 1 Yorkshire Oaks after being her superb self this season landing the Coral Eclipse on her seasonal debut and on her latest run took the King George VI & Queen Elizabeth Stakes in one of the races of the season.
Gosden has fond memories at York with Ascot being the only other racecourse where he has picked up the most amount of prize money and he will be hoping Enable can keep her unbeaten record going.
He said: “She has had a nice easy time since the King George. She just did a breeze on her own with Frankie [Dettori] on Saturday – into a strong headwind, so they just did a nice quiet bit. She is out there enjoying herself, looking well and moving nicely.
“She’s a lovely filly and done extremely well this year. She really enjoys her training and her racing, which obviously makes the trainer’s job a lot easier. Everyone is interested in her when she is out on the Heath. So we're very lucky to have a filly like that."