Royal Ascot 2025: Field Of Gold sparkles in the St James's Palace Stakes
Field Of Gold (8-11 favourite) ran out a superb winner in the battle of the 2,000 Guineas heroes as he grabbed glory in the St James's Palace Stakes on the opening day of Royal Ascot 2025.
The John and Thady Gosden-trained three-year-old had been second in the Betfred 2,000 Guineas at Newmarket behind Godolphin rival Ruling Court last month before landing his own Classic success in the Irish version at the Curragh three weeks later. And the Juddmonte-owned Kingman colt was sent-off the odds-on favourite to reverse the form with Ruling Court and also beat Aidan O'Brien's Emirates Poule d'Essai des Poulains (French 2,000 Guineas) winner Henri Matisse (4-1). And under Juddmonte's new leading man Colin Keane, who had partnered him to victory in Ireland, Field Of Gold proved he is the star of the Classic generation.
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He was settled in rear with Henri Matisse, under Ryan Moore, for much of the early part of the race. But after the turn for home in the Group One mile, Field Of Gold made smooth progress through the pack and hit the front with over two furlongs left to run. He quickly moved clear and came home a superb three-and-a-half-length winner over Henri Matisse with the Charlie Appleby-trained Newmarket hero Ruling Court, under Liverpool FC fan William Buick, a further three-and-three-quarters-of-a-length further adrift in third.
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It was a dominant display to mark Field Of Gold as the outstanding miler of the season so far. But he could step up to 1m2f for next month's Coral-Eclipse Stakes at Sandown, for which he has been cut to 11-10 favourite by some firms.
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If he stays over a mile, he may head to the Glorious Goodwood Festival at the end on next month and a clash with the older generation which will include the first two home from the Queen Anne Stakes earlier in the day, Docklands and Rosallion. But on this effort they will both be hard pushed to get the better of the flying grey. Field Of Gold is a best-priced 6-4 favourite for that Sussex Stakes at Goodwood.
It was the 11th Royal Ascot victory since the John and his son Thady Gosden became joint trainers but a 67th overall for the 74-year-old's Clarehaven Stables.
John Gosden said: "It was exciting to say the least, They're proper horses, they've gone some strong pace and when Colin skipped round them going two, three wide and I thought 'ooh, you']re going well' and when he kicked I thought 'you've gone too soon', you know this track.
"I didn't watch him I looked back but I couldn't see anyone coming thank goodness. He's a proper horse, wonderful performance and we'll give him a holiday now."
Jockey Colin Keane after victory in the St James's Palace Stakes with Field Of Gold on day one of Royal Ascot 2025 at Ascot Racecourse on Tuesday, June 17 2025 -Credit:PA
Keane, who has recently taken over as the main jockey for Juddmonte, was landing only his third victory at Royal Ascot and first in a Group One. He added: "Good horses make it look easy. It was a very good renewal of the race, I don't know when the last time three Guineas winners clashed but he was very good at the Curragh and he was very good again today.
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"I was happy enough [with track position], I was beside the three main rivals. I thought Ryan was always going to be behind us somewhere. If anything they [the leaders] probably didn't bring us far enough and we got there plenty soon but he's tough and genuine, a good horse.
"Fortunate enough to be riding him and at this moment he's the best horse I've sat on. I'm in a very privileged position, these colours are colours that when you go racing, you're always looking at them so to get a Group 1 winner at the first ride associated with them is just brilliant."
Prince Saud of Juddmonte told ITV Racing: "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 and I think we are seeing a marvellous achievement being achieved today and I'm very thankful for the trainer and 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's a wonderful horse."
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On the possibility of running in next month's Coral Eclipse at Sandown, he added: "I don't know, we will be talking generally about it but definitely John's opinion is very highly ranked."
On runner-up Henri Matisse, Ballydoyle trainer O'Brien said: 'We're very happy; he ran a very good race. You're 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.'
On third home Ruling Court, trainer Appleby added: "William said 'I was never really travelling comfortably' and obviously at this level you need to be able to get up there and just travel on the bridle and give your horse a breather to be able to try and go through those gears at the business end.
"William said 'if I'd got off him today I'd never have said he could have won a Guineas, had the pace for the Guineas' and it's all going back to where we felt we were in the spring. We felt we were a mile and a quarter horse and of course we thought we were confident we could be a player in the Guineas but if he had finished third or fourth in the Guineas, we'd have said 'delighted, let's step up in the Derby'. That was our original pencil plan but he wins the Guineas and obviously we were then gung-ho to go to the Derby, I still feel it was the right decision not to have gone there on the ground because I do feel, okay he's had a decent race today on quick ground but I do think he'll bounce out of this quicker than he would have done had we ran him in the Derby.
"It's never ideal to have to then say we're going to regroup and head here but I don't think that was anything to do with what we saw today to be brutally honest but I'm happy the horse has pulled up fine and the one thing we'll be doing from now on is stepping up in trip. It's too soon to be jumping on and say we're looking at the Eclipse but working back from the Juddmonte is the most likely target"
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