When charismatic six-year-old gelding Big Orange landed the 2017 G1 Gold Cup at Ascot on Thursday he became the fifth individual Gr1 winner for Drakenstein Stud sire Duke Of Marmalade (Danehill).

The latter’s previous Gr1 winners include Simple Verse (Gr1 Ladbrokes St Leger, Gr1 Qipco British Champions Fillies & Mares Stakes), Star Of Seville (Gr1 Prix de Diane Longines), Nutan (Gr1 IDEE 146^th Deutsches Derby) and Sound Of Freedom (Gr1 Premio Lydio Tesio). Simple Verse, Nutan, and Sound Of Freedom are all official champions, with Simple Verse being Cartier Champion Stayer in 2015, Nutan Champion 3yo in Germany in 2015, and Sound Of Freedom Champion Older Mare in Italy in 2016.

Big Orange, now a nine time winner, pushed his earnings to £1 142 586, with his front running win in the historic Gold Cup, which was first run in 1807.

Trained by Michael Bell, Big Orange has now six group victories to his credit, and was coming into the Gold Cup off a five length romp in the Gr3 VIP Matchbook Henry VII Stakes at Sandown.

He was produced by the Fasliyev mare Miss Brown To You, who won once over a mile.

Big Orange is Duke Of Marmalade’s highest earner to date and looks unlikely to stop here, with Thursday being the first Gr1 win of his career.

Duke Of Marmalade, who stands at Drakenstein Stud for a fee of R80 000 this year, has his first South African yearlings on the ground this year.