Rebel’s Romance confirms staying class with Newmarket Group 2 win

Rebel’s Romance turned Newmarket’s Princess of Wales’s Stakes into another reminder that age has not caught him, grinding out a four-runner Group 2 victory over 1 1/2 miles on July 9 under William Buick. Sent off the 8-11 favourite on good to firm ground, the 8-year-old Dubawi gelding held off Arabian Crown with Almeric third to land a Godolphin one-two and add another prize to a career that now sits among the most decorated on the international turf circuit.

The win was his 22nd in 32 starts, and it pushed his prize-money beyond £12.1 million, with Racing TV listing the winner’s purse at £93,572. Equibase now shows a record of 22 wins, one second and two thirds, with earnings of $15,650,493. For a horse who has been asked to travel and repeat himself across continents, the numbers still read like a stallion prospect’s résumé, even though Rebel’s Romance has spent his best years proving value in the gelding ranks through durability rather than repetition.

Charlie Appleby had already said Rebel’s Romance still retained all his ability despite being eight years old, and the Newmarket run backed that up in the most practical way possible. The gelding had not run on a British track since last year’s King George VI and Queen Elizabeth Stakes, and this was only his second start of 2026 after winning the Dubai City of Gold on February 28. Even in a field trimmed to four runners, the race served as a neat test of whether a world-traveler can still control elite staying races at home, and Rebel’s Romance answered by edging clear late enough to make the result look routine.

His place in the division is now unusually secure for an older horse. Godolphin’s record puts him on nine Group 1 wins, including the 2022 and 2024 Breeders’ Cup Turfs, the 2024 Dubai Sheema Classic and the 2025 Joe Hirsch Turf Classic Stakes at Belmont At The Big A. Breeders’ Cup notes that he became the first horse to win the Turf in non-consecutive years, and that the 2024 Del Mar edition came by a neck in 2:26.07 before earning him Eclipse Award recognition as North America’s champion older turf male. Newmarket was not a surprise so much as a confirmation: Rebel’s Romance remains one of the season’s defining older-horse stayers, and another international target, including a possible return to the Breeders’ Cup Turf, now looks entirely live.