Qirat

The five-year-old has won 4 of his 14 races in total, which works out at roughly 1 in every 3.5 starts — a strong return. Three of those wins have come at Goodwood, including a Class 1 victory there on 30 July 2025, which represents the very top tier of British racing. Trainer Ralph Beckett, who runs one of the most productive yards in the country right now — 109 winners already this season — has spoken openly about the horse always having the ability, but never quite unlocking it on demand. That Class 1 win felt like a breakthrough. The plan that day was simple but bold: send him to the front, run fast, and dare the others to match him. They couldn't. As Beckett put it afterwards, he had always felt Qirat threatened to be a good horse, and that afternoon he finally got it out of him.

Jockey Hector Crouch has been the man in the saddle for much of Qirat's best work. Together they have won 3 of their 7 races — that is a win rate of 43%, or nearly 1 in every 2 times they team up. That is a remarkable number. Rider Richard Kingscote deputised for that landmark Goodwood win, and Crouch has noted that the horse is well suited to easier, wetter ground — he believes a bit of rain before the Britannia at Royal Ascot could well have produced a winner there too.

His best distance is somewhere between seven furlongs and a mile, where he has won 3 of 7 races. He also has a clear preference for normal ground conditions, winning 2 of 4 races in those circumstances. Beckett had the Lincoln and Newbury's Spring Mile in his sights earlier this year, but timing and fast ground got in the way. A big-field race like the Royal Hunt Cup at Ascot has been mentioned as a realistic target, and there is a sense from the yard that Qirat could yet go up in grade. A horse who wins at the highest level at Goodwood and does it three times from three visits has earned the right to have those ambitions taken seriously.