Protest (11/2) benefitted from a drop back to a mile as she captured the Ridgeview Fillies’ Handicap for Roger Varian and Silvestra de Sousa.
Having raced keenly when fourth over 10 furlongs at Newbury, the Cheveley Park Stud homebred proved more amenable here and was able to angle across to the stands’ rail in the straight.
With the rail to run against, the three-year-old daughter of Ulysses stayed on nicely to score by a length from recent Windsor winner Atlantis Blue (12/1). Blessed Star (11/1) shaped well for last year’s winning stable of Charlie Johnston, a half-length further back in third.
Varian said: “Protest has been in great form. The form of her Listed race fourth at Newbury in May was very strong and we thought we may have been fortunate that she stayed on her handicap mark [92].
“We hope she can go back into Listed company. It is lovely to win a race at Glorious Goodwood for great supporters Cheveley Park Stud with a homebred filly. She has a great pedigree. Hopefully, she can go on and get some black type.
“She maybe didn’t get home at Newbury over 10 furlongs, but she looked good at a mile today, so we will stay at that and see what is around the corner.’’
De Sousa said: “Protest broke sharp and it felt like nobody wanted to go to the front. I was going so well and I didn’t want to do too much, I just wanted to get a bit of cover. I managed to do that and, as soon as I got cover, she relaxed for me and I felt I always had plenty of horse.
“I didn’t think they’d come over to the middle and stands’ side and I got carried that way. She is a really good, willing horse and put the race to bed nicely. I think she will come on a bit for the run. In the work she shows at home, she could be a black type filly and I have no doubt about that.”
Chris Richardson of Cheveley Park Stud said: “Hopefully, Mrs T[hompson] will have been impressed with what she’s seen today and why not [stay in training]? Protest is a nice filly and her form has been well franked since Newbury. She is classy. I think the family tend to improve and she is full of potential – let’s hope she can continue an upward curve.
“I am delighted for Ulysses, our young stallion. He is flying and hopefully this project will continue to fly his flag. It is tough times at the moment for those sorts of stallions but, if people rally round and support these sorts of horses, we will keep standing them and hopefully we’ll keep having days like today.”
George Baker said of Atlantis Blue: “She is a cool filly who won last week at Lingfield. We talked about coming here, which was a bit of a step up in class, and Jim (Crowley) and I both agreed that with a mare in form you should get on and run them. We swung the bat, and she’ll go up a bit in the handicap for that, but I’ve always thought she was a bit better than her mark and if we stick to fillies’ handicaps, we’ll have a bit of fun with her.”
Blessed Star’s trainer Charlie Johnston said: “She has only had five runs in her life. She was hitting the crossbar a lot as a two-year-old, and then we were just struggling with her a bit in the spring, so she only had her comeback run a couple of weeks ago. I wanted to run her tomorrow in the mile-and-a-quarter fillies’ handicap, but she’d have been 3lb out of the handicap, so we came here instead. She’s run really well but she will improve again when she goes up in trip.”