He simply lobbed along at the back of the field then produced almost unbelievable acceleration to mow down his opposition in the closing stages.

In the soft ground the race was run on it should be well nigh impossible to run the final three furlongs in 33.90 seconds. But that’s what Prince Gibraltar managed. And he wasn’t even asked for maximum effort until the final furlong. Then he came from three lengths last to blast two lengths clear by the finish. His time for the final furlong was just 10.8 seconds. That’s the kind of speed a five-furlong sprinter reaches in the middle of a race run on fast ground. I never thought I’d see it from a middle-distance horse at the end of a race run on soft.