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Time For Sandals stunned the thousands in attendance at Royal Ascot, holding off Arizona Blaze to land the Commonwealth Cup at Royal Ascot for Harry Eustace.
Sent off at 25-1 in the hands of Richard Kingscote, she cruised to the front on the far side with a furlong to run and showed great resolve to edge out Arizona Blaze by a neck with the supplemented Rayevka half a length further back in third.
"It's the first time she's had a fast horse to follow, I don't want to say (we were) very confident, but we felt like we hadn't seen the best from her for one reason or another," said Eustace.
"The voice is in dire straits, I can assure you of that! She's always shaped to be pretty good and at home we felt we had excuses for her; she never ran a bad one, she was always right there but hadn't quite put it all together.
"We were always confident in a race like this where there would be fast horses taking her along, that's really what she needed; don't get me wrong, we didn't dream that we'd get here, but she was always pretty good."
He added: "It's been extraordinary (the meeting), but that's the team at home, it's all the little things all the way through and I can't thank them enough. The owners will be in there, they're relatively new, this is the second ever horse they've had and they're pretty lucky people."
Kingscote - who won the Derby for Sir Michael Stoute on Desert Crown in 2022 - said: "I've had nice horses to ride since Sir Michael retired, it was always going to be a year of building back up, I had a nice bit of support and I'm delighted to get on a filly like her.
"Last year she was a very unlucky placed horse in the Super Sprint and she progressed all the way through. She was unlucky last time I felt.
"She did a spectacular piece of work a couple of weeks ago at Newmarket and I'm delighted to ride Harry a big winner because he's a gentleman and his yard is such a happy yard.
"I'm delighted, he's a lovely man and his staff are always so positive and happy so it's great to get them a nice winner. He's only just trained his 100th winner, so I'd say two Group Ones at Royal Ascot is pretty special to him."
Venetian Sun shines in Albany Stakes
Venetian Sun backed up Karl Burke's confidence in her ability with a dominant display in the Albany Stakes.
Ante-post favourite in the build up to the race following an impressive winning debut at Carlisle, she was sent off at 7-1 in the end with Burke having drawn a blank with several other fancied juvenile runners this week.
She also had to overcome what looked a disadvantageous draw in stall one under Clifford Lee, yet despite having no cover, she was in front with a furlong to run and pulled a length and a half clear of Awaken and Balantina.
Burke said of his daughter of Starman, who is owned by Tony Bloom and Ian McAleavy: "She's a beauty of a filly. She was asleep in the prelims, she's done it the hard way, stuck on the worst draw on paper so I'm just delighted for everybody.
"Her work at home has been pretty special, I certainly haven't had a two-year-old work the way she has. She's kicked some proper horses out of the way, so much so that the first time she did it I had to change to another good lead horse just to prove a point and she did the same to him.
"She's a special filly. I was gutted we got the draw that we had and to be honest, she's won despite that because it's not really the way we like to ride her - loads of daylight.
"She's got a great turn of foot and she can get in amongst them and use it. She'll stay further, I think six or seven, she's got a great chance next year of being a Guineas filly but we'll enjoy today and plan for the future.
"She's a beautiful looking filly, she was an expensive Book One filly. She wasn't a precocious early one, which sounds strange as she's won now but she was never going to be a five-furlong filly, even though she's won over five.
"The two older horses she's been working with, Spycatcher and Lethal Levi, they're good old work horses and proper Group horses - almost Group One horses - I haven't had a two-year-old that would do that to that type of animal before."
Bloom, who has enjoyed huge success with his runners over jumps, said: "Yes, 7-1 looks a good price now, and she was 12-1 this morning as well. Given the confidence Karl gave us, we had to have a decent bet. We'll leave it to the boss, but we're looking ahead to next season and to a potential 1000 Guineas, so that would be something really to look forward to."
