Michael Stoute is looking forward to seeing what Ulysses can do in the second half of the season after showing his true colours in the BeringIce Gordon Stakes at Goodwood.
As a son of the great Derby hero Galileo and an Oaks winner in Light Shift, the handsome chestnut is certainly bred for the job and looked every inch a top-class prospect when confirming previous promise with a dominant maiden success at Newbury in May.
It is a measure of the regard in which he is held that he attempted to uphold family honour in the Investec Derby at Epsom, but that test proved all too much for him at such an early stage of his career and as a result he lined up on the Sussex Downs with something to prove.
However, the 9-2 chance travelled like a class horse throughout the Group Three contest and overcame his inexperience to beat the front-running The Major General by half a length under Andrea Atzeni.
The Gordon Stakes is traditionally seen as a trial for the St Leger, but a trip to Doncaster in September is unlikely to be considered for the winner.
Stoute said: "He got badly buffeted and knocked around at Epsom, which didn't do him much good, so we just backed off him and brought him along smoothly for this.
"He'll go 10 or 12 (furlongs). We wouldn't be going to the Leger. He's in the Voltigeur, he's in the Prix Eugene-Adam. We'll just take a little time and decide when to go again."
The star in the saddle on the afternoon was James Doyle as he completed a hat-trick to take his tally for the meeting to four.
Mark Johnston admitted to being "amazed" after the Doyle-ridden 8-1 shot Yalta led his rivals a merry dance in the Victoria Racing Club Molecomb Stakes.
Despite holding the colt in high regard, the Middleham maestro did not expect the youngster to prove as effective as he did over five furlongs, beating better-fancied stable companion The Last Lion by an emphatic three lengths.
"We've been a bit devastated when he got beaten the last couple of times as we thought so much of him early on," said Johnston.
"He had shown tremendous speed in his races, but I was amazed. I know what The Last Lion is like and to be leading him by three or four lengths when he had not even asked him I knew the writing was on the wall at halfway."
Doyle went on to score aboard Ed Dunlop's top-weight Sagaciously (14-1) in the EBF Breeders' Series Veuve Clicquot Fillies' Handicap, before bringing up the treble on the Ian Williams-trained Shady McCoy (14-1) in the concluding NatWest Stakes.
A tilt at the Cesarewitch is likely to come under consideration for Hughie Morrison's Star Rider (11-1) following her triumph in the two-mile-five-furlong Matchbook Betting Exchange Goodwood Stakes, while the Andrew Balding-trained Perfect Angel (8-1) confirmed the promise of her Newbury debut by claiming a narrow verdict in the Markel Insurance Maiden Fillies' Stakes.
