Billesdon Brook, the 66/1 winner of the 2018 1000 Guineas at Newmarket, took the G3 Theo Fennell Oak Tree Stakes at the 2019 Qatar Goodwood Festival for trainer Richard Hannon and jockey Sean Levey.
The four-year-old filly broke the Goodwood track record for seven furlongs in the process in a time of 1min 23.75s. It was Billesdon Brook’s third win from five starts at Goodwood, and her jockey said: “She’s 10lb better here than anywhere else – she loves it.”
A 12/1 chance, she beat Perfection by a neck, with evens favourite Jubiloso another three-quarters of a length back in third.
Hannon said: “She’s such a lovely filly. She’s always there when you need her. She has a big group of fans, syndicate members and Jeanette McCreery who bred her. She’s been a star for us, and people have started to forget that – there was no fluke in her Guineas win. There was no fluke in the way she won it; she never looked like getting beat. Sometimes I feel – I don’t want to say she doesn’t get the respect she deserves…
“She’s just hard and tough, and also extremely talented, and she showed them there. They went very quick – we were originally, I said to Sean, ‘You’re presumably going to want to ride her handy because she’s only going seven [furlongs]’. He couldn’t go and luckily he had the sense to leave her alone, and she found her feet and if they go quick like that and she’s off the bridle, you know they are going too quick. All of a sudden she’s on the bridle and she has the speed to get in places where she wouldn’t normally get.
“She loves it round here – I don’t know if anyone has seen the video of her winning the nursery here [in 2017]. That was not normal. She looked like a sort of monster. She won the Group Three here – twice now, she won the Guineas, she’s a star. She’s just a really sweet filly.
“It was disappointing that Threat got beaten yesterday and that was sore – he is a very good horse but he got beaten and that’s what happen. These good horses get beaten and they come back. All of a sudden, you are rolling again.
“She was a big price but I thought she had more chance today than in the Guineas. All these guys are having the time of their life and that is what we are here for. Regardless of whether or not I am disappointed about yesterday – it’s irrelevant because I am pleased now. Today is another day.”
Levey added: “To be fair to her, she has done nothing wrong this year. She got beat at Pontefract last time and was a bit unlucky with one of them coming over the top late on, and I thought she didn’t stay the mile that day. She is a credit to the owners – they kept her in training and she does not owe them anything. She is 10lb better here than anywhere else. She loves getting into bits of trouble here and there, and getting there late. She just loves it here.”
FURTHER FRUSTRATION FOR RYAN MOORE AS JUBILOSO SUFFERS TROUBLED PASSAGE
Day four of what has so far been a largely frustrating Qatar Goodwood Festival for Ryan Moore got off to a poor start when Evens favourite Jubiloso, third in the G1 Coronation Stakes on her previous start, could finish only third behind last year’s QIPCO 1000 Guineas winner Billesdon Brook (Sean Levey, 12/1) in the G3 Theo Fennell Oak Tree Stakes.
Jubiloso had no luck in running and although she finished well once extricated to the wide outside she passed the post a length behind the winner.
Teddy Grimthorpe, racing manager to the filly’s owner Khalid Abdullah, summed up the passage Jubiloso suffered when he said: “It was one of those races when nothing went right. She got a bump and was then carved up, and she couldn’t get in a decent position after that.
“She couldn’t get out after that but such is life. We’ll take it on the chin and hope that there’s another opportunity for her somewhere along the way. I don’t think that a mile is any problem, so that gives us options.”
While Moore and Grimthorpe were understandably left frustrated, connections of neck runner-up Perfection (Silvestre De Sousa, 14/1) were delighted with their filly, though they too admitted a degree of frustration at getting caught so late.
Trainer David O’Meara said: “We are delighted with how she ran, but it’s frustrating she got nabbed. She’s been placed now in three Group races for us without winning one, but she’s very consistent and she takes her racing well. I need to go back and look at the programme book, as we are just taking it race by race at the moment.”
Frankie Dettori had a scare when unseated from front-running Royal Intervention upon pulling up, but he walked back to the weighing room unaided and told reporters: “I’m fine”.