Kyprios continued his unbeaten season with an emphatic victory in the 2m4f Group 1 Prix du Cadran at Longchamp on Saturday.
Winner of the race in 2022, the Aidan O'Brien-trained stayer had suffered a setback at the start of 2023 and was beaten on his two returning starts. The 2024 flat season marked a completely different story, with Kyprios kicking off the campaign with a victory in the Listed Vintage Crop Stakes before racking up three consecutive Group 1 victories in the Gold Cup, Goodwood Cup and the Irish St Leger.
Starting favourite for the Prix du Cadran, Ryan Moore was happy to make all on the staying star, confident that the six-year-old retained the stamina for the 2m4f trip. He was asked to quicken at the three furlong marker when Trueshan and Coltrane tried to make a bid, but the result was never in question, with Kyprios stretching out for a comfortable two length success.
In an interview with Sky Sports Racing, winning trainer Aidan O'Brien said: "He's so much class, Ryan said he was going second gear and wanted someone to join him all the time. Incredible horse. Hopefully if everything is well we might look to Ascot, give him the winter off and go back to the Gold Cup, give him two prep runs before again. When you have a horse like that, the class that he has and gets the trips that he gets, it's very unusual and with the mind that he has.
"His mind hasn't just developed, he's always had that as a two-year-old. I remember I ran him in a Listed race at Newmarket as a two-year-old and he just went to sleep in the race, and he's always like that. For us it's a privilege to have him and so grateful to everyone that's around him on a daily basis.
"We knew that we never had a horse who had won eight Group One's before. I promise you he's lucky to be here, and we didn't think he would be. Incredible really.
"We would love to run him in the Arc, but we have to be respectful to the horse. And what he's done for us, to come back, it might be disrespectful to him to ask him to run in that race after going through what he did. He'd would be better with a strong run race in front of him, but he'd go down on his knees for you, and that's the way he is and that might be the wrong option. But an amazing horse to have and I don't think we could ask for anything more for him."
