Stradivarius (foaled 28 February 2014) is an Irish Thoroughbred racehorse. After winning one minor race as a two-year-old, he emerged as a top-class stayer in the following year, winning the Queen's Vase and Goodwood Cup as well as finishing a close third in the St Leger. As a four-year-old he won the Yorkshire Cup, Ascot Gold Cup, a second Goodwood Cup and the Lonsdale Cup, securing a £1 million bonus for winning all four races, and ended the year by winning the British Champions Long Distance Cup. In 2019 he repeated his victories in the Yorkshire Cup, Ascot Gold Cup and Lonsdale Cup, and won a third Goodwood Cup, giving him a second £1 million bonus. With jockey Frankie Dettori on board, on 18 June 2020, Stradivarius won his third Ascot Gold Cup (by 10 lengths) and on 28 July 2020, he won his record fourth Goodwood Cup. In 2021 he won the Lonsdale Cup for the third time and in 2022 he achieved a third victory in the Yorkshire Cup. He was retired to stud at the end of the 2022 season, having won a record 18 European Group races. Background Stradivarius is a chestnut horse with a narrow white blaze and four white socks bred in Ireland by his owner Bjorn Nielsen. He was sent into training with John Gosden at Newmarket, Suffolk. He is from the fourth crop of foals sired by Sea the Stars who won the 2000 Guineas, Epsom Derby and Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe in 2009. His other major winners have included Harzand, Taghrooda and Sea The Moon. Stradivarius's dam Private Life won two minor races in France and was placed twice Listed races. She was a granddaughter of the outstanding racemare Pawneese. Racing career 2016: two-year-old season Stradivarius made his racecourse debut in a maiden race over eight and a half furlongs at Nottingham Racecourse on 5 October in which he started at odds of 3/1 and finished fifth of the nine runners behind Contrapposto. Two weeks later, in a similar event over one mile at Newmarket Racecourse he ran fourth behind his stablemate Cracksman. On 7 November the colt stated favourite for a one-mile maiden on the synthetic tapeta track at Newcastle Racecourse. Ridden as on his debut by Robert Havlin he led for most of the way and rallied after being headed in the closing stages to win in a