Yeats won the Ascot Gold Cup four consecutive times from 2006 through 2009, a record for the prestigious staying race.
The Irish-trained chestnut was bred by Aga Khan Studs and trained by Aidan O’Brien. Johnny Murtagh rode Yeats in his first three Gold Cup victories, while Sea the Stars’ jockey, Kieren Fallon, rode him in the 2009 race. Yeats was celebrated for his stamina over the two-and-a-half-mile course.
The Ascot Gold Cup is the centrepiece of Royal Ascot’s long-distance programme. It is traditionally contested over two miles and four furlongs, making it a severe test of endurance rather than a pure speed contest.
Yeats’s achievement is sometimes confused with the record of the race’s most successful jockey or trainer. The four-race sequence belongs specifically to the horse. He was retired after his 2009 season and became one of the modern era’s most famous stayers.