Irish raider Saddler's Rock ground out a determined victory in the Artemis Goodwood Cup under Johnny Murtagh.
John Oxx's stayer was the 2-1 favourite to exact his revenge on Godolphin's Colour Vision, who had beaten him into third in the Gold Cup at Royal Ascot in June but had to carry a penalty for that Group One triumph.
Chiberta King and Electrolyser were the two pacesetters and remained to the fore longer than expected, with the latter running a particularly fine race.
But Saddler's Rock wore down the grey inside the final two furlongs and found plenty for Johnny Murtagh to take the prize by a length from the fast-finishing Askar Tau.
Colour Vision was under pressure early in the straight, but to his credit stuck to his task doggedly to pick up minor honours in third.
Murtagh said: "We thought it was going to be a big year for this horse and it didn't start great in Ascot, but thankfully he redeemed himself today.
Murtagh said: "We thought it was going to be a big year for this horse and it didn't start great in Ascot, but thankfully he redeemed himself today.
"He's a lovely little stayer and he's got that turn of foot, especially on this ground.
"He's not very big but he's all heart and very straightforward and he's improving all the time.
"When you're riding nice horses like this it makes it easy."
Oxx said: "It's a nice race to win. It's a great old race with a lot of tradition and history, so we're delighted to be here to win it with such a nice horse.
"Not just one thing went wrong at Ascot, three or four things went wrong. If only one thing had gone wrong he might still have won, so we thought he was a bit unlucky on the day. That is no disrespect to the winner, who ran very well again today.
"We feel that race was the one that got away, but today we rode him more prominently, there was a nice even pace and we took no chances.
"He ended up in front a little bit too soon, he doesn't particularly like that, but we weren't going to make any mistakes today and that was the safe option.
"He's a quiet horse with a great temperament. He's lazy enough in his work and it's a little hard to get him going early in the season, which is why he probably came on a bit from his Ascot run.
"It was out of character for him to pull so hard in the Gold Cup as he's generally got a relaxed style of racing and he's an ideal Cup horse.
"He waits for the crack of the whip and then when he gets the crack, off he goes and he can use that turn of foot.
"We'll keep him at these sorts of races. He'll probably go for the Lonsdale Cup at York next and then we'll see about the Doncaster Cup again. The Prix du Cadran will be ideal for him.
"He doesn't like soft ground very much, although he can cope with it better now than he could last year. That's the only worry, as heavy ground wouldn't be his cup of tea."
