Cieren Fallon and Oxted pulled off an upset in the King’s Stand at Royal Ascot as red-hot favourite Battaash could only manage a fourth-placed finish.
The favourite was coming over a 298-day absence, and the rumours this his preparation hadn’t gone according to plan were backed up with the Roger Teal trained Oxted proving too quick for the rest of the field.
Battaash was looking to repeat the feat of Blue Point in winning the race two years on the spin, and looked set to do just that when leading heading into the final furlongs.
However, the 12,000 strong crowd watched on as Oxted pulled away to finish a length clear of the field.
After his wind operation in July 2020, Oxted was fancied for a good run, and the late money that saw him go off at 4/1 was justified with the lead only extending as they crossed the line.
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There were some big price places to be enjoyed with Arecibo finishing behind the winner and Frankie Dettori riding Extravagant Kid to third ahead of the favourite.
An emotional Fallon was clearly overjoyed with the win, but didn’t seem overly surprised to see Oxted prove too much with a winning time inside the minute mark.
“I’ve been very blessed, very lucky to sit on a horse like this,” Fallon told ITV Sport. “I got a lovely trip, he got a really solid gallop early on.
“I’ve picked him up when I needed to. He’s shown that he’s a proper Group 1 horse.
“It means a lot to me, and my family.”
