World Pool Gold Cup favourite Future Pearl is by Furura, whose father Dynasty has sired three Gold Cup winners (Candiese Lenferna Photography).

Looking at the sires of Gold Cup winners from 2006 onward they are Saumarez, Fort Wood, Kahal, Dynasty, Silvano, Editor’s Note (sire of Argentinian-bred In Writing), Jallad, Silvano, Mogok, High Chaparral, Ideal World, Dynasty, Dynasty, Noble Tune, Vercingetorix and Soft Falling Rain.

Soft Falling Rain would not be considered a stamina sire, but his Gold Cup winner Shangani is out of Gorongosa, who is by out-and-out stamina influence Montjeu and she herself won two Graded races over 3200m, including the Gold Bowl.

Vercingetorix does not have a reputation as a stamina sire despite being by stamina influence Silvano, but his Gold Cup winner Nebraas is out of an Archipenko mare Noor Dubai who went close once in a 2400m event.

So the first criteria to look for when studying form for a Gold Cup winner looks to be identifying horses with stamina influence sires or otherwise they must have plenty of stamina in the female line.

A quick look at this year’s World Pool Gold Cup entries shows that most are by sires with some stamina influence, so going on that criterium alone is not going to narrow it down by much.