ASCOT, ENGLAND // Big Orange is well named.
A giant of a horse, weighing in at 540 kilograms, it is his ability to cover the turf in a doggedly and uncompromising fashion that puts him in pole position to win the Gold Cup at Royal Ascot on Thursday.
And for once, Michael Bell’s pride and joy has got the conditions he relishes.
Big Orange flew to Meydan Racecourse in March only for it to rain. The wet weather dashed any hope of dethroning the now-injured Vazirabad in the Dubai Gold Cup.
Big Orange led from the front, but once he pointed for home out of the bend he was wheel-spinning in the soft ground and stayed on to finish fourth behind Thursday’s rival Sheikzayedroad.
Other than perhaps Highland Reel, who won in Wednesday’s Prince Of Wales’s Stakes, there is no tougher globe-trotter in training at the moment.
In the past 20 months Big Orange has flown to Australia twice, Dubai twice and squeezed in an unsuccessful journey to Hong Kong in December.
Big Orange shrugged off those trips at Sandown Racecourse last month when he was an emphatic winner of the Group 2 Henry II Stakes over 3,200 metres.
Although Thursday’s race is staged over an extra 800m, Order Of St George, the defending champion, had better bring his “A” game.
“That run teed him up for a really good year,” trainer Bell said. “He loves the fast ground. He was declared for the Gold Cup last year but we took him out because of the rain.”
“He is such a good mover. He is an enormous horse with an enormous stride pattern, and he is a real player on fast ground.”
With regular rider Frankie Dettori injured it is James Doyle who has stepped in to the breach.
Big Orange has never run over the Gold Cup distance, whereas Order Of St George dominated 12 months ago.
Order Of St George’s owners Coolmore know what it takes to prevail in this race having won it four times with Yeats between 2006 and 2009.
Last year’s triumph was their seventh in the past 11 runnings.
Turning for home, Order Of St George had nine horses to beat, but he swept to the front and just kept on running.
Doyle said owner Bill Gredley is right to try.
“I have watched plenty of his races and he just gallops, so you have to get the fractions right and keep winding him up,” he said. “When you get to that trip it is hard to tell.”
Big Orange usually races in a prominent position but faces a battle for the lead with horses such as Irish raider Torcedor and outsider Nearly Caught.
Bell is unconcerned.
“He doesn’t have to make the running. If something wants to lead him they are committing suicide because he has this relentless gallop,” he said. “If something leads him they are probably not going to stay there.”
Given his exploits, Big Orange has built up quite a support.
He finished fifth in the 2015 Melbourne Cup and followed that up with second place behind Vazirabad in last year’s Dubai Gold Cup.
He was good enough to cut back to 2,400m at Newmarket last July and then won hearts and minds holding off fellow giant Pallasator in a thunderous finish to the Goodwood Cup.
His victory at Sandown last time was followed by a huge cheer from the crowd.
“The reception he got at Sandown on a Thursday evening card was really heart-warming,” Bell said. “These older horses become so popular and the attention he gets is just fantastic.”
There may be a little more attention at Bell’s Newmarket stable if Big Orange can perform well again on Thursday.
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