Michael Hills brought the 8-1 chance through to lead at the furlong-pole as favourite Moon Ballad was briefly outpaced.

Jamie Spencer got a fine rally out of the favourite inside the final strides and got to within half a length of the winner at the post but it was to no avail.

Moon Ballad’s Godolphin team-mate, Noverre, was another three parts of a length back in third.

Only used in Britain in the last few years, sheepskin cheekpieces are often used on horses who find full-cup blinkers to be too claustrophobic.

Plans are afoot for them to be declared in the near-future like standard blinkers but Storming Home clearly finds them just the ticket and has really put his previously-frustrating ways behind him.

“I think they’ve made him concentrate,” said winning trainer Barry Hills.

“I don’t really like using them but he’s just not a straightforward horse and he never has been – he was tailed off on his debut as a two-year-old.

“They make him easier to ride because he travels better.”

Despite a relatively successful season, Hills has never been happy with the form of his string throughout the campaign.

“They have just been running below-par – never quite firing without there being anything obviously wrong,” he said.

“But recently I’ve been happier with them. When they’re right they want to do it and when they’re not they don’t.

“He won’t go to the US now – he will stay in training here and we will look at races like the Eclipse and the Prince of Wales’s Stakes.”

Successful rider, Hills jnr, added: “When we got him to win last time it gave him the confidence to be a good horse again – he had lost a bit of faith in himself.

“Today everything went well and to win a big race for Dad at Newmarket is a fantastic feeling.”

Both Moon Ballad and Noverre may soon be on their travels.

“Moon Ballad stays in training next season and there is a possibility he will be trained for the Dubai World Cup,” said Godolphin racing manager Simon Crisford.

“He was staying on well again at the finish and is an improving horse.

“Noverre has an entry in Hong Kong and could go there depending upon how he comes out of this race. He is a really consistent horse.”

Master jumps trainer Martin Pipe again turned his hand to the Flat with great success as 12-1 chance Miss Fara took the 36-runner £120,000 Tote Cesarewitch.

The game filly, a useful hurdler last winter, gradually ground down Irish raider Direct Bearing to get up in the dying strides and win by a head.

Direct Bearing (16-1) had taken up the lead with about three furlongs to run and looked for a long time as if he would hold on only to falter as his stamina gave way at the very end.

The first two finished three and a half lengths clear of Dubai Seven Stars, a stablemate of the winner and one of five saddled in the race by Pipe, who also took this prize in 2000 with Heros Fatal.

Last year’s winner Distant Prospect (12-1) finished fourth.

Miss Fara is one of five horses owned by Kent-based retired businessman Trevor Painting.

“She has been such a consistent filly and she’s a real trier,” Painting said.

“She loves good ground so we the weather has been just right in the past couple of days and Martin said he thought she had a good chance so I had a bit on at 33s and 20s.

“She’s seven – rising eight – now so we have to think about her future as a broodmare. It may be that Martin thinks the time has come to retire her as she would be quite valuable or he might want to go back hurdling with her. I will let Martin tell me what to do.

“I was a partner with Paul Green in Cyphrate who finished second in the 1993 Queen Mother Champion Chase but this is my biggest winner by a long way.”

Winning jockey Ryan Moore said he had always been confident of success, despite the last-gasp nature of the victory.

“She travelled well all the way and two furlongs out I thought we were going to win,” said the 19-year-old apprentice.

“Maybe in hindsight I left it a little bit late but she was so game that she got her head in front.

“It has been an up-and-down year. I joined Mr Hannon’s yard in January but then I broke my wrist in May and didn’t come back until after Royal Ascot.

“But since then things have gone really well and it’s great to win a big race like this.”

Direct Bearing’s trainer Dermot Weld was downcast about getting caught on the line.

“Today was the day with this horse – it’s been planned for about a year but that’s not unusual for me,” he said.

“We had a few quid on each-way at 25-1. I just thought Pat (Smullen) might have gone too soon but the gap came and he had to take it.”

Martin Dwyer, the rider of Distant Prospect, also felt he had been unlucky in the race.

“I was drawn in another county with 36 runners in the race and I had to take a chance and come across,” he said.

“I got a good run through but then I got blocked at the wrong time and it probably cost me the race – he was flying.”

Jimmy Fortune, the rider of the unplaced Zibeline was handed a two-day ban for careless riding (October 28 & 29) after his mount was found to have interfered with favourite Tees Components, who ultimately finished back in 16th.

And Direct Bearing’s rider Pat Smullen was given three days (October 28-30) for using his whip with excessive force and frequency.