Fame And Glory has clear passage to the Gold Cup at Royal Ascot

Fame And Glory has seen his Gold Cup odds slashed in to 7/4 following the news Rite Of Passage has been ruled out of Royal Ascot.

Trainer Dermot Weld has today confirmed Rite Of Passage will not run in the Gold Cup at Royal Ascot next week following a set-back in his preparation on Wednesday.

Rite Of Passage is the reigning Gold Cup champion but the emergence of Fame And Glory last season left punters licking their lips at a potential clash between the two horses in this year’s Gold Cup.

But training problems mean punters have been left deflated ahead of Thursday’s feature race and Fame And Glory is dominating the Gold Cup betting market.

Installed as the 6/1 second favourite at the start of this season, a victory for Fame And Glory in the Listed Vintage Crop Stakes at Naas back in April saw Aiden O’Brien’s five-year-old cut further in the Gold Cup betting.

Then victory over Rite Of Passage in a Gold Cup prep race at Leopardstown at the end of May saw the five-year-old earn a quote of 3/1 for the Gold Cup, but the news that his season rival is out of the Gold Cup sees Fame And Glory the outright 7/4 favourite for the feature race at Royal Ascot.

Questions will have to be answered by Fame And Glory over his stamina as he is yet to run over 1m6f, and the 2m4f trip of the Gold Cup presents a new challenge for Aiden O’Brien’s horse.

But Aiden O’Brien has taken a similar route with Fame And Glory that he took with the immortal Yeats– a four-time winner of the Gold Cup – in 2007 and 2008, and there are plenty who believe the step-up in trip will hold no trouble for Fame And Glory.