The Ridler, under Warrington jockey Paul Hanagan, grabbed a shock 50-1 victory in the opener, the Norfolk Stakes, on the third day of Royal Ascot 2022.
The former two-time champion jockey had lost his job with trainer Richard Fahey earlier in the season, but the Liverpool FC fan teamed up with his long-time former boss to land his sixth Royal Ascot winner.
The duo also won last year's Norfolk with 14-1 shot Perfect Power and after a lengthy stewards' inquiry they were confirmed the winners again despite The Ridler veering across a number of his rivals on the run to the line.
Hanagan and the two-year-old son on Brazen Beau grabbed a length-and-three-quarter success over 7-4 favourite Walbank with Crispy Cat (7-1) a neck back in third.
With Walbank, Bakeel and The Antarctic all prominent early, The Ridler sat off the pace before moving into contention coming to the final two furlongs. But as he moved to the lead The Riddler drifted markedly to his left, hampering both Crispy Cat and Brave Nation and a stewards' inquiry was called. But due to the widish margin of the winning distance the placings remained unaltered.
Hanagan, who was later given a 10-day for his 'careless' ride, said: "The Ridler pricked his ears in front and I always felt he was clear. I don't think they had to stop riding, so I think it will be fine.
“He is still very green and a baby. I put my stick down to get him straight, so I could not have done much more.
“There's a lot of emotions going through me at the minute. I'm delighted to ride this winner for Richard Fahey and the owners – I'm going to enjoy the moment."
For Fahey, who was forced to rule out the well-fancied Clearpoint earlier in the week, was delighted to win the race for a second successive year.
He said: "You'd have to say it was a bit of a surprise. But I didn't think he was a 40-1 shot, genuinely I didn't."
When pointed out he was 50-1, he added: "So he drifted after I backed him then!
"He is a good, hardy horse. We had him in the Coventry and we had a good, long chat about it all. Clearpoint was taken out of the Norfolk, so we decided to go here.
"You need a good six-furlong horse to win over five here, especially the pace they went. I'm delighted.
"Clearpoint just had a dirty scope. He is a horse we like a lot, but I'm not sure he would have beaten this guy on today's form."
On teaming up with Hanagan again, Fahey – who was landing a ninth career Royal Ascot winner – said: "It is great. He was happy. I'm happy. The owner was delighted, so everything is good.
"It wasn't really a change around of jockeys, it was bringing a young guy in. Paul would still ride for us and he has ridden for us today. You have to look at the future."
On where The Ridler may go next, the North Yorkshire-based trainer said: "He is quite a quick horse and the route that Perfect Power went – the Morny. We'd have to think something like that, because he will have a Group Two penalty and you'd have to go Group One now.
"Paul said he got a bit lonely and he wandered across the track. If we were placed, I'd have been delighted. It is a tough race to win, so to win it twice is fantastic."
Walbank, like Go Bears Go who finished second to Perfect Power 12 months ago, is trained by David Loughnane. And he said: "It's last year all over again, the horse has done very well and I couldn't have asked any more of him. It's just deja vu, the horse has done very well and he's run his race. I don't know if he could have done anything different but that's racing.
"It's hard to say (if he'd have won), we were out in front and he may have got a little bit lonely as the winner's come on the outside but he's come a long way across the track. He's a superstar, we've very proud of him. He's done us all proud."
Crispy Cat's trainer Michael O'Callaghan was frustrated with the outcome and believes but for the interference his horse would have won the race.
He said: "He should have won. It is plain and simple. Silvestre (de Sousa) said he would have won. He never had a clear run through the race, even from the middle way through the race, and then he got wiped out by the winner when he did get out and was coming through.
"It wasn't the first time he had to check, and he has run on again so he should have won, unfortunately."
Jockey De Sousa added: "We got a wipe out from the winner, it made the difference. We would have won."
Secret State (4-1 favourite), under another Liverpool FC supporter William Buick, held on to land the King George V Stakes.
The Charlie Appleby-trained three-year-old had won twice in his three career starts, including at Chester's May Festival, and came into the Royal meeting as the well-backed favourite.
And under Buick, he was always travelling well and hit the front two furlongs from home. He powered along the rail in good style but was all out to hold the fast-finishing Deauville Legend (14-1) down the outside.
Secret State eventually scored by a head from Deauville Legend with Israr (11-2) three-quarters-of-a-length back in third. It was the same distance back to the fourth, Savvy Knight (18-1).
It was Buick's third winner of the week and drew him level with Danny Tudhope at the top of the standings.
Secret State could head to Glorious Goodwood for the Gordon Stakes next before possibly the Great Voltigeur at York in August. And he could easily be a Classic contender later in the season. Betfair introduced him into the St Leger market at 14-1.
And trainer Appleby, having his second winner of the week after Coroebus on the opening day, said: "We were keen to get out and get a nice pitch, it's one of those races that can be hard work if you're in the second half of the field so our plan was always to be in the first half.
"William got him out, got him in a good pitch.
"The pace was steady enough so you know you had to be in the right position when they started quickening. He got that first run on them and the one thing I was always confident of was that this horse will always find.
"He's done it on every occasion and today, we're very pleased and he's a horse with a profile that's going the right way.
"We'd be bold enough to say we might work into something like a (Great) Voltigeur (at York), we'd be stepping from handicaps into Pattern company there but he's done little wrong."
