MOUNT TOP OF STAYERS UP FOR THE CUP @Goodwood_Races

  

The £100,000 Artemis Goodwood Cup, first run in 1812, is one of the oldest races in the British calendar and was once, when stamina was the most prized asset in a racehorse and potential stallion, one of the most prestigious.

Nowadays it is still one of the season's premier long-distance tests, as the middle leg of the so-called 'stayers' triple crown', after the Gold Cup at Ascot and before the Doncaster Cup, and as part of the QIPCO British Champions Series. It has been run over various distances before settling at two miles in 1991, and after being downgraded to Group Three level in 1986, regained its Group Two status in 1995.

Its winners include some of the great horses in the division, most notably in the modern era such as Yeats, Persian Punch, Kayf Tara, Double Trigger, Ardross and Le Moss.

But the most charismatic has surely been Kincsem, the Hungarian mare who took the race in 1878 as part of her world record unbeaten run of 54. It was her 37^th race and, on her sole visit to Britain, she was the outsider of three but despite being left nearly a furlong at the start, she won easily.

Yeats, in 2008, was the last horse to complete the Gold Cup-Goodwood Cup double. This year's Ascot winner Estimate is not in tomorrow's field; the Ascot form is represented by Colour Vision, who was fourth, Germany's Altano (5^th) and Ireland's Saddler's Rock (8^th).

The ante-post favourite, though, is Luca Cumani-trained Mount Athos, whose last outing was also at Royal Ascot, when he finished a staying-on fifth in the Hardwicke Stakes over a mile and a half. That was the Montjeu six-year-old's second run of the season; his first brought a nine-length success over 13 furlongs at Chester. On his last run over two miles he finished an excellent fifth in the Melbourne Cup. Cumani has yet to win a Goodwood Cup.

Colour Vision finished third to Saddler's Rock in last year's Goodwood Cup after winning the Gold Cup. The grey five-year-old has not won since his Ascot triumph but ran a solid race behind Estimate last month. He is the best-fancied of three Godolphin representatives tomorrow, the others being Cavalryman and Ahzeemah, who finished first and second over the trip in the Dubai Gold Cup at Meydan in March. Godolphin has won two of the last four Goodwood Cups, with Opinion Poll in 2011 and Schiaparelli in 2009.

Colour Vision is vying for second favouritism with Caucus, who beat Cavalryman over two miles at Newmarket on his last outing of 2012, opened his 2013 campaign by beating all but Estimate in the Sagaro Stakes and warmed up for tomorrow with a dogged success at Sandown. His trainer John Gosden won the Goodwood Cup 20 years ago with Sonus.

Saddler's Rock will be bidding to become the 13^th horse to win more than one Goodwood Cup and the 11^th to win two in a row, the latest back-to-back winner being Double Trigger in 1998. John Oxx's charge has not finished in the first three since last year's success.

The only other raider is Altano for Germany, a country on the crest of a wave after Novellist's triumph at Ascot on Saturday. Like the King George VI & Queen Elizabeth Stakes winner, Altano is trained by Andreas Wohler and before his Gold Cup effort the Galileo seven-year-old had won over two miles at Hoppegarten. No German-trained horse has won a Goodwood Cup.