Ralston all set for Gold Cup Pat Shanahan is confident Ralston Road will get the extreme distance of the Gold Cup when the four-year-old lines up for the stayers' championship at Royal Ascot on Thursday week. Ralston Road may be a 66-1 outsider for the two-and-a-half-mile Group One, but his trainer believes the colt will not fail for lack of stamina. The son of Dylan Thomas is no stranger to top company, either, having run respectably in the Dubai Duty Free Irish Derby and Ladbrokes St Leger last term, and is set to be a first Gold Cup ride for former star apprentice Ronan Whelan. Ralston Road warmed up for Gold Cup duty with a game effort that saw him dead-heat with the progressive Clever Cookie in the Listed Stowe Family Law LLP Grand Cup over a mile and three-quarters at York recently. "All is good. It's all systems go for Ascot and the Gold Cup," said Shanahan. "I'm looking forward to it and he'll get the trip no problem. "Ronan Whelan rides. He knows him and he gets on well with him."
