Field Of Gold’s pacemaker Qirat caused an almighty shock with a 150-1 victory in the Visit Qatar Sussex Stakes at Goodwood.
John and Thady Gosden’s Field Of Gold was a 1-3 shot to follow in the hoofprints of his sire Kingman by adding this prestigious Group One contest to his previous top-level victories in the Irish 2,000 Guineas and the St James’s Palace Stakes.
The Ralph Beckett-trained Qirat, who was last seen finishing 27th of 30 runners in the Royal Hunt Cup, was supplemented for the race last week at a cost of £70,000 (€81,000) in a bid to ensure the red-hot favourite had a strong gallop to aim at.
But the race did not go to script, with Qirat keeping up the gallop to emerge triumphant under Richard Kingscote, despite the best efforts of Rosallion, who was a neck adrift at the line.
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Field Of Gold, meanwhile, had to settle for a laboured fourth, with Aidan O’Brien’s Henri Matisse third.
Beckett said: “Richard has always been a very good judge of the clock. The last thing I said to him was keep going with this fellow, he could run really well.
“He loves this place and I wanted to enter him because his work was really good. It’s a horse race and anything can happen.”
Qirat’s dam, Emulous, also produced last year’s Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe winner for Beckett in Bluestocking.
He went on: “I thought he looked a million beforehand and that in the race he would set the pace from the front, and the longer he lasted the better for those concerned with the favourite.
“He’s always threatened to be a good horse and today he showed it.
“What about the mare? To come up with Bluestocking and him. She’s been like a hole in the wall, like a cash machine.”
Kingscote, who recently announced he is taking up a licence in Hong Kong, said: “I feel like a villain but when I saw it wasn’t a grey nose [Field Of Gold] coming towards me I just kept going.”
