Classic Clash In Vodafone Coronation Cup

Last year´s Vodafone Derby winner Sir Percy is set to take on 2006 Ladbrokes St Leger victor Sixties Icon in the Vodafone Coronation Cup on Friday, June 1, at Epsom Downs

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This tremendous clash between two Classic winners is an exciting prospect.

Others still engaged in the #250,000 Vodafone Coronation Cup are Rising Cross, second in last year´s Vodafone Oaks, French challenger Irish Wells, Godolphin´s Cherry Mix and four from the O´Brien stable, headed by Ascot Gold Cup winner Yeats plus Irish Derby winner Dylan Thomas, Scorpion and Septimus.

A select club of nine colts have won the Vodafone Derby and then returned to add the Group One Vodafone Coronation Cup, which is run over the same course and distance at Epsom Downs, each having done so in consecutive years.

The Alec Taylor-trained Lemberg in 1911 was the first Derby winner to return victorious 12 months later as he avenged the previous year´s St Leger defeat at the hands of Swynford by defeating his old foe in a vintage running of the Coronation Cup. The duo locked horns again in the Eclipse Stakes at Sandown when Swynford, who George Lambton later said was the best horse he trained, again demonstrated his superiority with a four-length victory.

Steve Donoghue took the Derby aboard Pommern in 1915 and the colt added the Coronation Cup the following year when it was run at Newmarket, while the next to do the double was the Fred Darling-trained Coronach, owned by Lord Woolavington, who had added the St James´ Palace Stakes, Eclipse and St Leger to his 1926 Derby triumph before returning to Epsom Downs in 1927.

Windsor Lad completed the Derby/Coronation Cup double in 1934/35 before a 29-year hiatus ensued.

The Epsom Downs double became fashionable again through the 1960s and early 1970s, with five Derby winners returning to take the Coronation Cup, beginning with the star French colt Relko in 1963 and 1964.

Lady Zia Wernher´s Charlottown in 1966 and 1967 continued the trend while the brilliant Jim Joel-owned Royal Palace emulated the feat in 1967 and 1968 for trainer Noel Murless.

The great Mill Reef followed his 1971 Derby victory with wins in the Eclipse Stakes, King George VI and Queen Elizabeth Stakes and Prix de l´Arc de Triomphe. The Ian Balding-trained champion returned to Epsom as a four-year-old, having taken that season´s Prix Ganay, and duly won the Coronation Cup, although he had to work hard to beat Homeric by a neck.

Roberto was the most recent Derby winner to add the Coronation Cup to his tally of successes. The somewhat enigmatic but hugely-talented colt had caused the shock of the decade when defeating the great Brigadier Gerard at York after his 1972 Derby win and returned to Epsom Downs in 1973 for a five-length victory over Attica Meli in the Coronation Cup. It was certainly an easier success than his short-head triumph from Rheingold 12 months earlier in the Derby.

The only Derby winner since Roberto to attempt the double was the Roger Charlton-trained Quest For Fame who took the premier Classic in 1990. Khalid Abdulla´s colt was making his seasonal bow in the 1991 Coronation Cup but could finish only fourth to the crack filly In The Groove. He added to his Derby success with victory in the Grade One Hollywood Turf Handicap in 1992.