Renowned UK farm Cheveley Park Stud were expected to win the Group I Al Shaqab Lockinge Stakes (1m) at Newbury overnight with a homebred and they did, but not with the one punters were thinking.
They had six time Group I winning Frankel mare Inspiral returning as five year-old for the first time this year and she was sent off as favourite, but her John and Thady Gosden trained stablemate Audience set a sold pace in front and the five yea-rold Ifrraj gelding kept up the gallop to win by a length and three-quarters.
Under a brilliant ride from Robert Havlin he scored his first Group I win to the surprise of all with Inspiral closing off for fourth.
"I thought it was a false start when I got to the two-furlong pole," said Havlin.
"He's always been hugely talented but has just been a little bit of a wayward child. He's been a five-year project but we've got there in the end. He's worked us out and we've worked him out. Last year he would never have got a mile, he was like a bull in a china shop and angry in the stalls, but he's better now and gave himself a breather today.
"You've just got to let him get on with it and we don't try to organise him. We've learned through experience to let him do what he wants. Towards the end he tried to run around a little bit, he can go left and right, but he's super talented and I still think we're yet to see the best of him."
Both Audience and Insipiral will head next to Royal Ascot.
"She's run a lovely race and come from stall one across to stall nine," said John Gosden of Inspiral.
"She's come to make her run and just got tired. She's having a good blow and she needed it. In her work at home she's a lot older and wiser and I'm not going to tell her what to do. She's been quietly doing what she's happy doing and she needed this run to bring her on for Ascot.
"The Queen Anne would probably be the aim for both horses but we'll also look at the mile and a quarter [in the Prince of Wales's for Inspiral]. We'll leave our options open and see how she is over the next week."
With four wins and seven placings from 13 starts, Audience is a half-brother to Group III winners Esquire and Dark Lady and is the best of six winners from stakes-winning Oasis Dream mare Ladyship, a daughter of Pivotal’s dual Group I winner Peeress, who also won the Lockinge Stakes among her seven victories.
Audience is the 12th Group I winner for Iffraaj, who shuttled to New Zealand for a number of seasons earlier in his career and is making an impact through his sire sons including Wootton Bassett, whose first Australian runners will hit tracks in the spring.
