Three-year-old Scandinavia showed his older rivals how it is done with a game performance to lift the Group One Goodwood Cup (3,209m) on Tuesday.

The Aidan O’Brien-trained up-and-comer was sent off as the $5.3 second favourite and could always be seen travelling ominously well under Wayne Lordan, tracking the pace set by his stablemate Illinois.

The $1.9 favourite looked set to hold on in a protracted duel down the Goodwood straight, but Scandinavia had other ideas and knuckled down to take the lead 100m out and win by ree-quarters o of a length.

Many were expecting Illinois to pick up the crown left by staying king Kyprios’s retirement, but it was the young pretender who landed the spoils and left jockey Lordan very excited for the future.

“I think in the future he could step into Kyprios’s shoes, but I suppose if Kyprios was here today it might have been a tougher task,” Lordan told the Racing Post.

“That’s the way it goes, Kyprios has gone, so this could be the man for the next few years. He’s improving. He’s only a three-year-old and was taking on the older horses for the first time.”

Elsewhere on the card, $15 chance Witness Stand caused a surprise in the Group Two HKJC World Pool Lennox Stakes (1,400m).

It was a race where very few got into it, with Witness Stand, Audience and Quinault quickly establishing a huge lead over the rest of the pack.

Lake Forest emerged from the back of the field to try and make a race of it, but Witness Stand was away and gone for a comfortable two-and-three-quarter-length success.

In the Group Two Vintage Stakes (1,400m), it was the Eve Johnson-Houghton-trained Zavateri who made it a perfect three from three by fending off Morris Dancer.

Conceding weight to the rest of the field after winning a Group Two on his second start, Zavateri overcame a troubled passage to take the lead 200m from home and fend off a fast-finishing Morris Dancer.

$2.6 favourite Dorset, up markedly in grade, was unable to sustain his effort after running keenly throughout.