Aidan O’Brien will go in search of a record-extending 10th win in the Gold Cup at Royal Ascot on Thursday 19th June, 2025, and the master of Ballydoyle will unleash a leading contender in the shape of Illinois, who heads a strong team of eight stayers for what should be a hugely competitive renewal.
With reigning champion and dual winner Kyprios now retired, Illinois will fly the flag for the O’Brien team and he warmed up for this with a comfortable victory in the Ormonde Stakes at Chester’s May meeting. A winner of the Queen’s Vase at the Royal meeting last year, the four-year-old son of Galileo has shown he is one of the leading stayers in training and is entitled to be a warm order for glory.
You have to go back 20 years to 2005 to see the last French-trained winner when Westerner was victorious, but the Francis-Henri Graffard-trained Candelari is a leading European contender for this year’s Gold Cup and he is one of the most eye-catching names in the list of entries. An impressive Group 1 winner at Longchamp last month over 1m 7f 90y, the dour stayer is one that could relish the step up to two-and-a-half miles here and is a huge player.
John & Thady Gosden’s Trawlerman ran a mighty race in this contest 12 months ago, but could only finish a length behind Kyprios in second place, but with that star performer out the way then the Godolphin-owned raider will be looking to go one better on day three of Royal Ascot. Back in third that day was Sweet William and he could be another of the Gosden team looking to down his rivals here and finally get his name in lights in this iconic contest.
Coltrane has been competing in these sort of events for years and is another taking his chance, with the likes of Yashin, Wonder Legend and Dubai Future adding more depth to the list of runners.
2025 Gold Cup Runners
| Number | Horse | Trainer |
| 1 | Coltrane | Andrew Balding |
| 2 | Dubai Future | Saeed bin Suroor |
| 3 | Sweet William | John & Thady Gosden |
| 4 | Trawlerman | John & Thady Gosden |
| 5 | Wonder Legend | James Ferguson |
| 6 | Yashin | Michael Bell |
| 7 | Candelari | Francis-Henri Graffard |
| 8 | Illinois | Aidan O’Brien |