The Times 31 July 2025
It was a noise, a different noise, a noise unlike any ever heard on a racecourse. It was the sound of 16,000 Goodwood racegoers saying, “how the hell did that happen?” A purported pacemaker called Qirat had won the Sussex Stakes at 150-1, the longest price yet recorded for a Group One winner in Britain .
On official ratings Qirat had 18lbs to find on second horse Rosallion and a massive 24 on the deeply disappointing1/3 favourite Field Of Gold carrying the same and green and pink Juddmonte silks and for whom Qirat was set to do “domestique” duties. But it all makes sense afterwards. In this case a perfectly decent horse was allowed to give them the slip.
Qirat is no donkey. He is a four year old half brother to last year’s Arc winner Bluestocking and before today had won three of his 11 races, most significantly two of them at Goodwood. Trainer Ralph Beckett was happy to have his horse supplemented to ensure a decent pace for Field Of Gold and was telling friends in the morning not to ignore him. Unfortunately that is exactly what Rosallion and Field Of Gold did.
Of course it’s easy to be a rider in the stands. In the 50 years since hanging up my boots I have noticed how much I have improved as a jockey with a judgement of pace now second to none. But even top pilots make mistakes and in this case Sean Levey and William Buick erred in allowing the leaders at least 6 lengths start in the straight.
The plural is the key, because there were two leaders not one. Alongside and then ahead of Qirat was the sweat soaked Serengeti, in to do duty for the Aidan O’Brien number one Henri Matisse. Unlike Qirat, on whom Richard Kingscote had got a flying start to settle easily at the head of affairs, Wayne Lordan and Serengeti missed the break and then had to steer a hectic path round the outside of everybody and dash up to dispute the lead with Qirat.
To us in the stands, and no doubt to those in their wake, it was easy to see this as a madcap gallop when the Race IQ fractions and the ease with which Qirat was going beneath Kingcote said anything but. Serengeti might have been the sort of chaos you shouldn’t follow but the other leader needed to be chased and soon.
Two and a half furlongs out Ryan Moore was getting anxious on Henri Matisse in third but behind him Sean Levey still sat calm with Buick on our hoped-for new superstar Field of Gold tracking him. Up front Serengeti was floundering and Qirat took over the lead and went for home while behind him the pennies dropped. Henri Matisse could not but Rosallion was something of a greyhound from the slips while behind him Field Of Gold showed the same flaws which at Newmarket had cost Kieran Shoemark his job. Asked to accelerate on the downhill slope his gallop became unbalanced and the big grey could never hit the mighty stride that had so impressed at Ascot and the Curragh.
39 year old Kingscote rode his first winner back in 2004 and triumphed on Desert Hero in the 2022 Derby. He has long been distinguished amongst his peers by his impressively tattooed torso and for his ability on two wheels and on four. He spent the morning hitting well over 100 mph on the Goodwood motor racing track. Qirat’s maximum was a mere 40.65 in that penultimate furlong. But no speed will have seemed so sweet. And that noise? Ah that was beautiful.