Field Of Gold confirmed himself as the champion miler of his generation with a stunning three-and-a-half length success in the G1 St James’s Palace Stakes.

The son of Kingman, himself a winner of this race in 2014, lined up after a dominant victory in the Group 1 Irish 2,000 Guineas and was sent off the 8/11 favourite to turn the tables on his Newmarket conqueror Ruling Court.

Always travelling smoothly, John & Thady Gosden’s star cruised into contention and put the race to bed with a scintillating turn of foot, in what was an armchair ride for Juddmonte's new retained rider Colin Keane.

Henri Matisse (4/1) emerged from the pack to finished second, without ever looking likely to trouble the winner, with Ruling Court (4/1) staying on to take third.

“That was a great performance," reported John Gosden. "Solid pace – Oisin did a nice job doing an even pace (on Windlord) – then he came to the head of the straight and he had a lot of horse and for a second I thought, ‘Whoops, this is Ascot – it climbs all the way to the finish line, and we’ve gone a bit soon’. I didn’t watch him, I looked back – you always have to look back for the dangers, and fortunately, none was coming.

“He had always impressed as a two-year-old, but he was a big boy and slightly outgrew himself. We ran him in France, a mistake in the end – it wasn’t the ground, he beat the latch, was too free in front, didn’t finish up. We should have run him in the Dewhurst, I regret that. Then this year he has been exemplary in everything he’s done. Look, he’s a pleasure to train because he’s a pretty laid-back character, which is very useful. It was never the plan to go to Ireland, it became the plan, so he’s had a trial, two Guineas and this. It’s a lot of racing and we’re not even beginning to be half-way through the season.

“Maybe freshen and go to the Sussex, something like that, we’ll see. I think if he hadn’t have run in Ireland, I would have probably been keen to go to the Eclipse. But I don’t want to keep… when they win like that, they make it look easy, but they are taking a lot out of themselves, so I wouldn’t want to be seen as someone trying to run him back in the Eclipse quick off this.

In reference to the Field Of Gold mirroring achievements of his sire, Kingman, he added: “Like father, like son, eh!”

Winning jockey Colin Keane said: "In some degree [it unfolded as he thought]. I thought we'd be behind Will and Ryan would be behind us, whereabouts I wasn't sure exactly but it worked out to some degree and he showed how good he is on the day.

"I had a lot of confidence in him but I needed them to have brought him a little bit further because he'll only do so much when he gets there. I didn't want to land there and be a sitting duck for something to come at me so If I asked him I thought they'd do well to catch him.

"I've been lucky enough to join this team. It's a very new relationship and to get a horse like him so early on is amazing. I've had nothing compared to this in recent years so it's a very special day."

His Highness Prince Saud bin Khalid of Juddmonte said: “We are very fortunate to have a horse of this calibre, not only winning but the style by which he won was very impressive, wasn't it? Being a son of Kingman makes it even more of a value to all of us. It is Prince Khalid's legacy.

“I am very thankful for the trainer, the jockey and all the Juddmonte staff; we are all very indebted to them. I hope everyone enjoyed it. I hope it has contributed to horseracing at large. He is a wonderful horse.”

Aidan O’Brien said of Henri Matisse: “We are very happy. You are never happy when you get beat, but he still ran a very good race. I think we will stay at a mile. We had it in our heads that he would go to the Sussex Stakes after, so we’ll see, but that’s what was in our heads.”

Ruling Court’s trainer Charlie Appleby said: “William said he was never really travelling comfortably, and obviously at this level you need to be able to get up and travel on the bridle, give your horse a breather, to try to go through those gears at the business end.

“It’s going back to where we felt we were in the spring - we felt we were a mile and a quarter horse. He won the Guineas, and we were then gung-ho to go to the Derby – I still think it was the right decision not to run on the ground.

“It is never ideal to have to regroup and run somewhere else, but I don’t think that was our undoing today. The horse is fine and one thing we’ll be doing from now on is stepping up in trip. I think it might be a bit soon to say we’ll be jumping on to the Eclipse, but we’ll be working back from the Juddmonte.”