Mr Dinos was a comfortable winner Photos from Ascot

Kieren Fallon claimed his first winner of the 2003 Royal Ascot meeting when second favourite Mr Dinos triumphed in the prestigious Gold Cup.

Always in contention, the four-year-old tracked long-time leader Persian Punch for most of the race.

But the 3-1 chance claimed the lead going into the home strengh and stretched his advantage to eventually triumph by a massive six lengths.

The horse, trained by Paul Cole looked unstoppable over the final couple of furlongs, finishing clear of Persian Punch in second and third-placed Pole Star three-quarters of a length further back.

It was Cole's first Gold Cup runner and the trainer admitted afterwards that it was an emotional victory for him.

ASCOT GOLD CUP RESULT 1 Mr Dinos (K Fallon) 3-1 2 Persian Punch (M Dwyer) 20-1 3 Pole Star (P Eddery) 12-1

"You get worried about the ground and you think you might write your horse off. He could easily have not gone on it and then you would have felt dreadful.

"I've never had a runner in the Gold Cup and it's a race I've always wanted to win. I can't believe it's happened."

Cole's base has been hit by the cough in recent weeks and the trainer went to great lengths to keep his star free of problems.

"We've had a terrible six weeks and we isolated him, and we've taken every single possible move to stop him getting the virus," he said.

I rode a horse who could take me there and he travelled well all the way Jockey Kieren Fallon

"It means a lot to everybody. We haven't had a winner here for a while. You work hard and it's nice to get a reward for it."

Fallon, who had a number of place finishes before Mr Dinos' victory was also delighted with the comfortable success.

"I just felt we weren't going very quick. Martin Dwyer on Persian Punch just switched off and he wasn't taking me far enough, so I decided to go and use his stamina.