Geoff Huffer was all smiles after witnessing his 25-1 shot Cockney Rebel - named after Steve Harley and his chart-topping 1970s band - come home in a blaze of glory in the Stan James 2000 Guineas at Newmarket.

The outsider flew round the stands side group passing the two-furlong marker in the mile Classic to lead inside the distance and keep on in impressive fashion, seeing off the front-running Vital Equine by a length and a half.

Dutch Art led home the far side - three-quarters of a length adrift - while Aidan O'Brien's pair of Duke Of Marmalade and Eagle Mountain were fourth and fifth respectively having also raced on the stands side.

Huffer had been full of confidence before the race, and that faith proved justified as his son of Val Royal quickened like a smart horse and kept lengthening once hitting the front under Olivier Peslier.

The colt was bought relatively cheaply from the Doncaster Sales for 30,000 guineas, but progressed nicely as a juvenile and signed off his campaign with a third-place finish behind Eoghan O'Neill's Vital Equine in the Champagne Stakes at York.

Huffer saddled Persian Heights to win the St James's Palace Stakes at Royal Ascot in 1988, but has only been back in the training ranks for four years and he said: ''This is the best horse I have ever trained.

''I took him to Lingfield about ten days ago and he worked with Banjo Patterson over a mile - who is a good lead horse - and in the last furlong and a half he took 25 lengths out of him.

''I've been in the game long enough to realise what I'd got. He has got so much speed - he could win over six furlongs.''

The winner is now likely to head to the Royal meeting and Huffer, who served five months in prison in 2001 for duty fraud, continued: ''I think he will be a top-class miler and he may stretch to a mile and a quarter.

''But I won't be doing that yet and may wait until something like the Juddmonte. He'll go to the St James's Palace next.

''It means everything to win this race. I have had a bit of a chequered career, but I have always done well at the training game.''

Harley and his band Cockney Rebel hit the top of the charts in 1975 with Make Me Smile (Come Up and See Me) and the singer was elated after Huffer's charge, who is owned by his friend Phil Cunningham senior, prevailed.

He said: ''I have lived a life and I have just lived it all again in two minutes there! This was as exciting as anything for me and I have done a lot.

''I like handicap hurdlers to own, but I was never going to have a horse like this so I told Phil he could have the name if he wanted it."