Enable was all set to defend her title but then a small setback resulted in a switch to Cracksman. The top rated horse was pitted against some very inferior rated horses. He was expected to win this by a mile with Frankie Dettori guiding him.
But when the gates opened, Cracksman had to work incredibly hard to deliver a win to the astonishment of both trainer and jockey.
John Gosden said, "It's very hard to accelerate and catch one on this ground, but particularly when you aren't enjoying running down the hill. Frankie said he's very uncomfortable running down the hill and there's rather a lot of it here.
"It was very nearly stolen by Silvestre with a very clever ride, but I liked the way he finished. He didn't really take off until he met the rising ground and then he just flew. It was a great ride from Silvestre, and not a panicky ride from Frankie."
Until the very last moment, Salouen was still in the lead, with German challenger Windstoss just plugging away back in third. At this point Silvestre de Sousa looked set shock the world. But Godsen put it well when he said, "he's had the guts to get up and win,"
It was just in the final lengths that Europe's highest-rated horse surged to the front, to the huge relief of John Gosden, Frankie Dettori and Anthony Oppenheimer.
Whereas this was a first Coronation Cup for the trainer, Dettori had already won the race four times, including on Daylami and Singspiel.
However, he had no hesitation in declaring that Cracksman is "up with the best of them", even though this was not the four-year-old's finest hour.
Click Here To Watch Coronation Cup winner Cracksman Race 2018
1st Cracksman (J. Gosden,F. Dettori), 2nd Salouen ( S. Kirk,S. Sousa), 3rd Windstoss (M. Klug,A. De-Vries), 4th Idaho (A. O'Brien,R. Moore), 5th Hawkbill (C. Appleby,W. Buick), 6th Yucatan (A. O'Brien,D. O'Brien)
Distance:1m 4f 6y (2,420 m), Surface:Turf, Track:Left-handed, Qualification:Four-years-old and up, Weight:9 st 0 lb, Allowances,3 lb for fillies and mares, Purse:£420,000
Credit: Pallavi Shevade pallavi.shevade@secretaristworld.com