Persuasive provided trainer John Gosden with a second victory in the Queen Elizabeth II Stakes (sponsored by QIPCO). The four-year-old daughter of Dark Angel relished underfoot conditions and kept on tenaciously to win by a length under Frankie Dettori from the 2-1 favourite Ribchester.

Aidan O’Brien’s Churchill (9-2) was a half-length behind in third under Ryan Moore.

Gosden confirmed that the Cheveley Park Stud-owned filly would now be retired and he paid tribute to Persuasive, commenting: “She is very talented and has had no luck in Group Ones before today. She will now go to the breeding shed so it’s nice to go out on a high.

“She deserves it and is a very nice filly. I think she would have been unlucky if she had not have won because she was about to get boxed in so Frankie had to take her back, check his run and switch.

“She just adores this autumn ground and I have had to wait a long time. The owners have been incredibly patient to wait a long time to have her right. She’s got her ground today and just flies through it.

“I never worry taking on the boys in a race in the autumn with a filly as they go through hell in the spring and summer hormonally and they come to late summer/autumn and everything is settled so they can focus on racing.”

It was Dettori’s sixth win in the Queen Elizabeth II Stakes since he broke his Group One duck in the race in 1990 aboard Markofdistinction.

Dettori said: “Persuasive travelled so good – I could not believe it. The ground is key for her. Barry [her groom] knows the filly very well and told me to wait as long as I dared. She showed an explosive turn of foot.

“I thought the race was going to be very tough, but she put it to bed very quickly. She came really good two furlongs out. I followed Churchill and I saw his distress signal, and I just needed some clean air. Once Ribchester shifted across to the right there was a gap for me, so I took her right and she took off.”

Ribchester took his record in Group One races this year to 311212 and Richard Fahey said: “It’s difficult to blame the ground as he’s a horse who’s won on soft ground, but he’s such a good moving horse and William [Buick] feels there that he’s come to win and win well but he just got beaten in the dead ground there. He just doesn’t put it to bed. The winner coped with the conditions better. That’s twice he’s been beaten in desperate conditions. But we’re happy enough. Well, not really, but I have to say that! I’m frustrated, rather than disappointed.”

Churchill had every chance in the final throws and Ryan Moore, partner of the three-year-old, said: “He ran a very good race. We were crossed by the second and that cost us a lot of momentum. When you get stopped in that ground you can’t get going again.”