Lightning Spear gets first Group 1 win in Sussex Stakes

Sometimes persistence is the better part of valor, and in his 16th try, the 7-year-old Lightning Spear finally won a Group 1 race.

Bursting between horses under Oisin Murphy on Wednesday at Goodwood, Lightning Spear rattled home a 1 1/2-length winner of the Sussex Stakes after finishing sixth in the 2016 Sussex and third last year. Lightning Spear, who began racing in 2013, has outlasted most of his contemporaries and on Wednesday outlasted seven rivals with a belated breakthrough at the top level.

“I’m pleased for the horse because he deserves it,” said winning trainer David Simcock.

Lightning Spear nearly got his Group 1 win earlier this year at Newbury, where he was beaten a nose by Rhododendron in the Lockinge Stakes. The horse loves Goodwood, relished what looked like somewhat tricky good ground on Wednesday, and finished much the best once Murphy found a seam in the final furlong of the one-turn mile.

Expert Eye loomed a winner with an eighth of a mile to run but couldn’t come close to matching Lightning Spear’s late kick and settled for second, a half-length better than Lord Glitters, who had a nose on Gustav Klimt.

It was a disappointing day for the favored Without Parole, who led for the first three-quarters but was beaten before the serious running even commenced and checked in seventh of eight in his first start since capturing the Group 1 St. James’s Palace at Royal Ascot.

Lightning Spear, owned by Qatar Racing, is by Pivotal and out of Atlantic Destiny, by Royal Academy. He’s now won seven times from 25 starts while in his sixth season of racing, and the Sussex victory earned him automatic entry and travel expenses to the Breeders’ Cup Mile this fall at Churchill Downs. Lightning Spear traveled to Hong Kong, where he was no factor in the Hong Kong Mile last winter, so perhaps his connections will consider another international adventure in November.