Godwinson won the Lincoln at Doncaster | result and free replay

Trained by William Haggas and ridden by Cieren Fallon, Godwinson was more or less in last place as the race developed and was matched at 120/1 in-running on the Betfair Exchange.

The early pace didn't appear to be strong with Orne pulling for his head as the field gravitated towards the stands' side. Aftre breaking well, favourite Midnight Gun was taken back to get cover behind the front rank which included leading fancies Thunder Run and Native Thunder.

Midnight Gun appeared to be slightly caught out as the pace quickened inside the final two furlongs but the gaps opened for James Doyle and there was enough space for Midnight Gun to find his stride. However, by the time he'd quickened, the Irish Lincolnshire winner Orandi had already gone clear on the far side of the track where he was soon followed by Magnum Opus.

Magnum Opus never looked like reeling in Orandi and was soon overhauled by Oliver Show who flashed past and appeared to have the race in safe keeping with his connections later shown to have celebrated victory in the paddock.

Their joy soon turned to despair as Fallon had engineered a remarkable run from Godwinson who flashed home to put his head down where it mattered, winning by a nose, to provide Haggas with a record fifth Lincoln victory.

Orandi was only a neck away in third. Magnum Opus filled fourth with Galeron fifth and Midnight Gun sixth.

Godwinson was advised at 16/1 by Andrew Asquith in his Weekend View column.

Fallon told ITV Racing: "We definitely would have been unlucky.

"This horse has been working well and promised big things, just been unlucky in big races, but today things have gone how we'd like. A strong headwind. We were a bit concerned about the ground drying up but dropping out like that and having a nice field to follow just took his mind off a few things.

"I always knew I was going to be very competitive. It was on the line and I was just hoping that we got the nod down at the line and it was really important that I got his head down at the right place; delighted."

George Boughey, trainer of Oliver Show, said: "I thought he'd won.

"What a huge run. He's come back from Bahrain and the guys out there did a super job with him. I did think he'd run well but he's a horse who has just kept progressing and progressing, just hung his race away late on and I think the owners thought he'd won.

"He's a horse who has threatened to do this. He just needs a proper pace to run at and this had been the plan for a long time."

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