After showing good, but unexceptional form in his first two seasons, he improved significantly in the summer of 1955 and ended his career with a record-breaking win in the Portland Handicap.
Having been awarded one of the highest Timeform figures of the decade, Princely Gift was retired to stud at the end of the season and had considerable success as a sire of winners.
[1] As a two-year-old, Princely Gift showed some useful form, notably when finishing second, beaten a short head by the future 2000 Guineas winner Darius in the July Stakes.
[4] Towards the end of the season, Princely Gift began to show improved form and at Newmarket in October he recorded his first important weight-for-age win.
[5] Princely Gift's early form in 1955 was unremarkable, and he ran poorly in the Wokingham Stakes at Royal Ascot.
[7] In their book A Century of Champions, based on a modified version of the Timeform system, John Randall and Tony Morris rated Princely Gift the second best British or Irish-trained horse of his generation, behind The Derby winner Never Say Die.