Order Of St George goes the distance

Order Of St George has pulled off an unlikely victory to get up in the final strides of the Group Two Long Distance Cup at Ascot.

Part-owned by Australian Lloyd Williams and trained by Aidan O’Brien, the original Melbourne Cup topweight was sent off the 4-5 market leader, but with two furlongs (400m) to run he looked beaten as Torcedor kicked clear in Saturday’s 3200m-race.

Gold Cup winner Big Orange was a spent force a long way out on the heavy ground and it was Mount Moriah who led them into the straight, with Torcedor on his shoulder.

When Colm O’Donoghue asked the Jessica Harrington-trained Torcedor for maximum effort he looked sure to collect, but in the final 100 yards he was treading water as Ryan Moore got a late lunge out of Order Of St George.

John Gosden’s Goodwood Cup winner Stradivarius stayed on for third under Frankie Dettori.