Ray Dawson excited by Gold Cup challenge with improving Rahiebb

Ray Dawson is relishing being in the Royal Ascot spotlight aboard Rahiebb for his eagerly awaited rematch with St Leger conqueror Scandinavia in next Thursday’s Gold Cup.

The two four-year-olds fought out a nip-and-tuck finish to the Doncaster Classic last season and after Roger Varian’s son of Frankel only enhanced his reputation with an impressive reappearance win in the Yorkshire Cup, anticipation is building for his jockey ahead of the feature of day three of the Royal meeting.

Dawson said: “It’s very exciting and it’s probably my first year going into Royal Ascot with a good few live chances and obviously Rahiebb being the headline horse, running in arguably the biggest race of the meeting.

“I’m interested to see how he gets on over that trip (two and a half miles) and there’s only really this race all season where you can try to see. We’re going there with high hopes, confident he will stay and as an up-and-coming four-year-old.

“He ticks a lot of boxes that every other Gold Cup winner has had leading up to it and if he has that turn of foot he showed at York at the end of two and a half miles he would have to be bang there.”

Only a neck separated Rahiebb and Scandinavia on Town Moor and it was almost fitting that both tuned-up for the Gold Cup on the very same day, with Aidan O’Brien’s charge claiming the Saval Beg only hours after the former had demonstrated a blistering turn of foot over one-mile-six at York.

They will now lock horns again with Dawson hopeful of turning the tables, confident there is still plenty of upside to his mount.

He added: “I know Scandinavia has beaten us but he has had a hard career for a four-year-old and our lad has fresher legs, I think.

“It will be a completely different race to Doncaster and they went very hard in the St Leger. They won’t go that hard in a Gold Cup I don’t think, and I would love to come upsides him in the straight and see who wants it more. I would be confident my lad might sneak past him this time.”

Scandinavia will head to the Gold Cup unbeaten in his last five races and a dual Group One winner since finishing a close-up fifth in the Queen’s Vase 12 months ago.

He is Paddy Power’s 5-4 favourite after 13 stood their ground following Friday’s confirmation stage and will bid to give his trainer a record-extending 10th win in the week’s staying showpiece.

Also confirmed by the master of Ballydoyle was Coronation Cup runner-up Jan Brueghel, with Lambourn who was third in the same Epsom race amongst the absentee’s alongside last year’s Gold Cup runner-up Illinois, who undertook pacemaking duties on the Surrey Downs.

Trawlerman will add further spice to the Gold Cup mix after John and Thady Gosden confirmed the defending champion is on track to make his seasonal reappearance in a race he made all the running in 12 months ago.

In a sight likely never seen before at Royal Ascot, the eight-year-old will sport ‘ski goggles’ in the parade ring.

John Gosden told the Nick Luck Daily podcast: “It’s not the kind of race you turn up in without a run under your belt and over two and a half miles it is the toughest race of the meeting, so to that extent it leaves him at a disadvantage. But having said that he is full of enthusiasm.

“He has had a weird problem with his eyes in that he has become very sensitive to light and strangely enough he’s been going out and doing a lot of his exercise in ski goggles.

“He will be allowed to wear them in the paddock and to canter down to the start but they won’t let him race in them understandably, for fear he thinks he’s on a slope or something!

“His work has been good, he did a strong piece the other day and the enthusiasm is there, but I’ve always wanted one race to tighten up and it’s tough to go into a cup final without having won a previous match.”

Trawlerman could be joined by stablemate Sweet William, who has finished third and fourth in the last two renewals and has looked as good as ever in two outings this season.

The seven-year-old was a plugging on second behind Saeed bin Suroor’s reopposing Dubai Future in the Henry II Stakes and before that outbattled George Scott’s Caballo De Mar to claim the Sagaro Stakes, with the runner-up since claiming a second Group One in France and he too heads to Ascot as a legitimate contender in his own right.

Joseph O’Brien is set to saddle Al Riffa, who finished third behind Caballo De Mar in the Prix Vicomtesse Vigier and was second to Rebel’s Romance in the Hardwicke Stakes at this fixture last term.

Going one better at the Royal meeting in 2025 was Paddy Twomey’s Carmers, who edged out fellow Gold Cup candidate, Andrew Balding’s Further, to land the Queen’s Vase and will return to Berkshire having won the Listed His Majesty’s Plate at Down Royal late last month.

Tom Clover’s Al Nayyir, Robson De Aguiar’s Dallas Star and Ed Walker’s Miss Alpilles complete the potential field.