The Gatekeeper (25/1) made the best of his way home on the far side rail to win the Balmoral Handicap (sponsored by QIPCO) at Ascot.
Always to the fore under Joe Fanning, the pair kicked for home some way out in the finale on British Champions Day.
They opened up a lead by three or four lengths and although the petrol gauge began to swing towards empty in the closing half a furlong, The Gatekeeper had enough of an advantage to prevail by a length.
Course regular Ropey Guest ran another fine race to finish second at 40/1 with Docklands third and Bopedro fourth.
It was a 37th course victory for Fanning who was riding for trainer Charlie Johnston and he told ITV Racing: "He's had a long year but he's kept going, he's a tough horse.
"He hasn't really run a bad race this year, you never know on this ground but he went through it all right.
"It's been great racing."
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Mark Johnston, the trainer's father, was on hand to greet the winner and added: “I think we knew he would like the ground - I don’t know that it is key to him, but we knew that he would handle it, and we couldn’t help but note that front-runners have done very well today.
"So Mike Prince (of owners Middleham Park) in particular said to Joe, just jump and bowl along, which is what we tend to do anyway, so it has been perfectly suitable today.
“I think that is probably it this season. The owner is talking about the Lincoln, which is an obvious target. And Joe’s not retiring, either!”
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