Qirat wins Sussex Stakes as 150-1 shocker
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Qirat, a 150-1 shot in England and a mere 61-1 on the American tote board, scored a shock upset Wednesday in the Group 1 Sussex Stakes at Goodwood Racecourse.
Trained by Ralph Beckett, Qirat is a Juddmonte Farms homebred whose entry in the one-mile Sussex had as much to do with the Juddmonte homebred Field of Gold, the odds-on Sussex favorite trained by John and Thady Gosden, than his own participation. Qirat had other ideas, stepping outside his role a bit player to steal the Sussex show, holding clear a strong finish from Rosallion to win by a neck.
Henri Matisse, who had his own pacemaker in Serengeti, finished a well-beaten third, 2 1/4 lengths out of second and 1 1/4 lengths ahead of fourth-place Field of Gold, the 1-5 favorite in America. And while the second, third, and fourth-place finishers probably were held up too long and too far behind Qirat, Field of Gold failed to reproduce his Group 1-winning mile form from the Irish 2000 Guineas and the St. James’s Palace and wouldn’t have proved a major Sussex factor in any case.
Serengeti broke terribly, leaving Qirat and jockey Richard Kingscote on a clear lead for the first furlong, whereupon jockey Wayne Lordan hard-rode Serengeti to make the front. Kingscote let him go, creeping forward off the final bend and into the homestretch, and collaring Serengeti with a quarter-mile remaining. While William Buick on Field of Gold urged his mount forward, trying to maintain position, Sean Levey aboard Rosallion, figuring the horses to beat were behind him, not in front, waited patiently until about the three-sixteenths marker to get serious. Rosallion gave when Levey asked, but Qirat’s lead proved too wide to bridge.
“We set out to go 12-second furlongs,” Beckett said. “That was the plan and what he did. It is as simple as that. They didn’t sit close to him and that is the end result. When he went past Serengeti, I could see they were not coming, and I was fairly confident he would not stop. He looked a million dollars beforehand. I don't think he has ever looked that well.”
Qirat, winning for the first time in 11 months, never had so much as contested a group race at any level before Wednesday, though he did run his record at Goodwood, a quirky course, to 3 for 3. In fact, Beckett, who said he’d made a mistake trying the horse in blinkers earlier this year, said he’d urged Juddmonte, despite the colt’s lack of accomplishment, to make Qirat an original nominee to the Sussex. That didn’t happen, and Qirat had to be supplemented into the race.
Qirat is by Showcasing out of Emulous, by Dansili, making him a half-brother to Bluestocking, last year’s Beckett-trained winner of the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe. The Sussex being part of the Breeders’ Cup Challenge Series, Quirat ($125.70) earned an automatic fees-paid entry into the Breeders’ Cup Mile as well as travel expenses to Del Mar. Qirat is Breeders’ Cup-nominated and eligible to contest the BC Mile. Whether he’s eligible ever to repeat his Sussex surprise is a different question.
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