The traditional Qatar Goodwood Festival meeting was once again successful with five days of quality racing.

There was plenty of shocks during the week, along with a mixed bag of weather. The biggest surprise of the week happened in Wednesday’s feature race on the card, the Group One Sussex Stakes when pacemaker Qirat surpassed everybody’s expectations by leading all the way to claim the first prize of £600,000 for Ralph Beckett with Richard Kingscote aboard at odds of 150-1.

Field Of Gold went down to the start as the horse to beat after starting a long odds on shot at 1-3.

With two furlongs out the John and Thady Gosden colt was always struggling and made no impression on the leaders.

The only danger to Qirat a furlong out was Rosallion who stayed on but couldn’t quite reach the winner.

"He's always threatened to be a good horse," said winning trainer Ralph Beckett.

"He was here to set the pace and go 12-second furlongs from the front. 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."

If anyone was due a change of luck it was Beckett, who watched stable lynchpin Kinross miss out on Tuesday’s Lennox Stakes after he was kicked by a rival at the start, while stablemate Sing Us A Song was unruly in the stalls before disappointing in the one mile four furlongs handicap which kicked off the Qatar-backed Sussex Stakes card.

The tide started to turn, however, when Saqqara Sands and Tabiti, both trained by Beckett, dead heated for first place in the next race and little over an hour later he was celebrating his first Group One of the year.

Jockey Richard Kingscote, soon to leave our shores to continue his riding career in Hong Kong, said he felt like a thief after the race, although there was no fluke about his mastery from the front.

"I feel like a villain, but when I saw it wasn't a grey nose coming towards me I kept going," said the winning rider. "Ultimately, we were there as a helping hand to go an even gallop and we were somewhat ignored early then took a lead off Wayne Lordan.

"Towards the cutaway I was thinking he was going well, but you always expect the horses rated 20 pounds higher to be coming through. I could see Rosallion coming, but my horse kept pulling out.

"I think Ralph was happy to have me on as I like being in front, like my fractions and it worked out okay. It's a bit surreal but great to be going to Hong Kong on a positive note."

Although there was a ten per cent increase on attendances than last year, the meeting itself was overshadowed with the loss of a true racing legend Trueshan who broke a pastern in the Group One Goodwood Cup, a race he won in 2021.

By Peter Moore