Bay City Roller storms to Coronation Cup rout for George Scott

Bay City Roller turned Epsom’s Coronation Cup into a procession, stretching a supposed heavyweight contest into a 10-length demolition and delivering George Scott his first domestic British Group 1 win. On a day when the rain softened the ground and changed the shape of the race, the 17-2 shot looked like the only colt who fully embraced it.

The four-year-old New Bay colt, ridden by Oisin Murphy, won the £1,000,000 Group 1 over 1m4f6y in good-to-soft going on Derby Day, with Jan Brueghel second, Lambourn third and Calandagan a distant fourth in the six-runner field. Convergent and Illinois completed the placings in fifth and sixth, but the race was decided long before the final furlong. Bay City Roller traveled smoothly in behind Lambourn, then Murphy angled him toward the better ground in the middle of the track and the result became academic as the others stayed toward the far side.

That move mattered because this was not just a big winning margin. It was visual authority, the kind that changes how a staying horse is viewed. Bay City Roller had been second in the Curragh Gold Cup only 13 days earlier, and Scott had been persuaded by the rain to bring him back quickly for Epsom. That decision now looks inspired. Bay City Roller handled the soft conditions cleanly, stayed powerfully and exposed the limitations of rivals who had looked more decorated on paper.

Calandagan, who had been monitored closely before the race because of the forecast downpour, never looked comfortable when the ground turned against him. Francis-Henri Graffard’s runner had been aiming at a sixth Group 1 victory, but Epsom’s revised conditions and the persistent rain undercut that plan. Jan Brueghel and Lambourn ran respectably enough to frame the winner, yet neither could lay a glove on a colt who simply went clear and kept pulling away.

For George Scott, this was a breakthrough that extends beyond one afternoon. Bay City Roller had already shown his class by winning the Grosser Allianz Preis von Bayern at Munich in November 2025, and the Coronation Cup confirmed that rise was no fluke. Bred by John Connaughton and owned by Victorious Forever, he now looks every inch a horse for the top table among international stayers, with the manner of his Epsom romp likely to force bigger targets later in the season.