Royal Ascot victory in Gold Cup brings vow to 'run naked down the track'
Jayne McGivern, who has championed the Derby winner Golden Horn since acquiring as a stallion, was overjoyed by his son's success in the royal meeting's signature prize
A joyful stud owner revealed she made a vow to streak down the track if the favourite won the Gold Cup at Royal Ascot on Ladies' Day.
Jayne McGivern owns Golden Horn, the champion racehorse who won the Derby, Eclipse, Irish Champion Sakes and Arc in 2015. Since acquiring Golden Horn, who she stands as a Flat and jumps stallion at Overbury Stud in Gloucestershire, he has produced a Royal Ascot winner in Gregory and Champion Hurdle winner in Golden Ace.
He is also the sire of Trawlerman who stepped out of the shadow of recently retired long distance champion Kyprios, behind whom he was second last year, to capture the royal meeting's signature race, the Gold Cup.
Trawlerman, trained by John and Thady Gosden and ridden by William Buick, made all the running in the marathon race to defeat Illinois, the anointed heir to Kyprios in Aidan O'Brien's Ballydoyle stable.
And afterwards McGivern let stip she had made a promise to her husband to 'run naked down the track for a mile' if Trawlerman netted his prize catch to clinch a statement win for his father.
'Golden Horn deserved this,' said McGivern. 'He doesn't produce two and three year olds on the Flat but if you are prepared to go and produce a tough middle distance horse then he is the horse. I am so pleased he's got the recognition of doing that.
'I could not be more proud of the boy. He's the most fabulous horse. He deserved a statement win on the Flat but he is as brilliant a jumps stallion as he is Flat. He is a dual-purpose stallion.'
Before being bought by McGivern, Golden Horn was stood by owner-breeder Anthony Oppenheimer as a Flat stallion at Dalham Hall Stud.
'His connections recognised that he needed more time than the Flat market were prepared to give him and he'd be better off in a different place.
'I absolutely love the horse, I believe in him, I identified him as something I wanted to buy 18 months before I was able to. I knew how good he was and I just wanted the public to see how good he was. Golden Horn was a brilliant racehorse and now I hope he has shown he is a brilliant sire too.'
After the race an elated McGivern let slip she had made a promise to her husband to 'run naked down the track for a mile' if Trawlerman netted his prize catch.
She said: 'I am prepared to do that but I don't want to frighten the crowd so I might do it tomorrow! Trawlerman wasn't a shoo-in. It was just his day.
'I will do it in private at home tonight with my husband in the garden, if that's okay. I will keep my hat on!'
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