The second day of the Glorious Goodwood meeting was supposed to be the one where charismatic grey three year-old Field of Gold smashed his elders to win the Group I Sussex Stakes (1m), but that didn’t happen and instead we saw the longest priced G1 winner in British history.
Sent off at 150-1, the Ralph Beckett trained Showcasing gelding Qirat was put into the race as a pacemaker for hot favourite Field of Gold with both horses carrying the famous Juddmonte silks.
As it happened Coolmore had also put a pacemaker in for their entry Henri Matisse and that horse Serengeti at one stage took over from Qirat, but as he compounded to eventually finish last, Qirat kept going to the disbelief of onlookers.
Qirat won by a neck over top class triple G1 winning four year-old stallion Rosallion with Wootton Bassett colt Henri Matisse a late closing third ahead of a lacklustre Field of Gold in fourth ahead of the OTI owned Docklands and Ciaron Maher trained Carl Spackler.
Winning rider Richard Kingscote followed instructions to the letter.
“Qirat has always threatened to be a good horse, I've just never managed to get it out of him until today. He was here to set the pace and go 12-second furlongs from the front,” said Ralph Beckett.
“That's what he was here to do and the longer he lasted, the better it was for everyone concerned with him. That was the idea. Having watched the clock, I think he achieved that, and the last thing I said to Richard Kingscote before he got on him was, 'Keep going on this fellow. He isn't going to stop and he could run really well here’.”
A homebred for Juddmonte, Qirat has the overall record of four wins and five placings from 12 starts with this victory his first in a stakes race with his previous form largely in handicap events.
His previous run before going to Goodwood was a 27th of 30 at Royal Ascot in the Royal Hunt Cup Handicap (1m).
Qirat does not lack for pedigree being the half-brother to last year’s Group I Arc de Triomphe winner Bluestocking and is the second G1 winner among four winners from Group I winning Dansili mare Emulous.
He is the fifth Group I winner and 74th stakes-winner for Showcasing, who shuttled to New Zealand earlier in his stud career and now stands at Whitsbury Manor Stud at a fee of £35,000.
The meek performance of Field of Gold left his co-trainer John Gosden deflated.
“We got left back a long way, that's life, and the pacemaker goes and wins it. If you let them have those fractions they'll do it, Field of Gold ran on but didn't seem well balanced on the track. It's a different kind of track than he's run on and he just got a little imbalanced coming out of the dip into the bend but I'm not making any excuses,” he said.
“He ran a huge race in the Guineas and was flying at the finish. He was not flying at the finish here so it was very different. We'll have to see why [he wasn't at his best]. He's having a normal blow and we'll have a good look.
“He didn't seem comfortable and William (Buick) said as soon as he asked him, the engine wasn't there, simple as that. And if not, he'd have run on and probably been with Rosallion in second or right up there but he didn't fire today.”
