Juddmonte Cheveley Park Stakes (Group 1)

RALPH Beckett has trained some top-class fillies in his career, with Look Here and Talent both winning the Oaks at Epsom, and he can add Lezoo to that list after she captured the Group 1 Cheveley Park Stakes in the style of a smart sprinter under the in-form Will Buick.

Lowther winner Swingalong made the running in a deep field, with Albany heroine Meditate (Aidan O’Brien/Ryan Moore) – the well-backed favourite – close up from the start. Lezoo, who was sent off at 11/2 on her return from a nine-week break, was a bit slow to stride, and was initially settled near the rear of the field, but she made ground easily when manoeuvred to the flank, and when Buick asked her to go after the leaders with a quarter of a mile to run, she quickened better than the favourite to gain a three-quarter-length victory. Mawj (Saeed Bin Suroor/Ray Dawson) was the same distance back in third having held every chance with a furlong to go.

In beating Mawj, Lezoo was gaining revenge for the controversial decision to allow the Godolphin filly to keep the Duchess of Cambridge Stakes here in July, when Mawj had broadsided the unfortunate Lezoo in the closing stages. That has been the daughter of Zoustar’s only defeat to date, and she looks all the more unlucky to have that blot on her record in retrospect.

Success

Lezoo is owned by Marc Chan in partnership with Andrew Rosen. Chan has enjoyed plenty of success in his brief time with Beckett, with New Mandate taking the Royal Lodge in 2020, Angel Bleu landing two Group 1 prizes in France last term, and Kinross taking four group races since bought by Chan from Julian Richmond-Watson, one of Beckett’s oldest patrons.

The pair also tasted Group 1 success when Prosperous Voyage won the Falmouth Stakes at the July meeting in Rosen’s silks, making up for a narrow defeat in the 1000 Guineas.

The trio who chased Lezoo home all looked to run close to their previous form in group company, with Meditate perhaps undone by the drop to six furlongs on a sound surface having run so well over a furlong further on rain-softened ground in the Moyglare Stud Stakes, while Mawj and Swingalong had no excuses with conditions to suit and appear to fall short at the highest level.

Beckett said of the winner: “If you’d looked at her in July and look at her now, she’s actually changed colour – she’s gone a bit darker. That’s probably because she went slightly off as she had four quick runs up to the Princess Margaret. It just caught up with her, so we had to pull up.

“I wasn’t sure she was back on her game, I wasn’t convinced, but she just did one easy piece of work last week to build up which went well. She’s obviously just very good. She’d be the best two-year-old filly that I’ve had.

“She doesn’t show up at home really, to the extent she caught me out first time. I told her owners she’d win a novice and that would be it. It shows how wrong you can be. William got her in a lovely place on the wing, she’s so professional she didn’t mind that, and three out I thought we were in business.

“If Lezoo runs again she’d go to Keeneland (Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies), but I’d have to think about that and see if it is really the best thing for her. She’s unlucky not to be unbeaten this season. How she didn’t get the race in the Duchess of Cambridge is a mystery.”

Reaction

Bookmakers reacted by cutting her odds for next year’s 1000 Guineas, but the Commonwealth Cup at Royal Ascot appears a more likely target given the speed she showed here, and her stamina for a mile is in doubt, something her trainer is sanguine about.

“Unfortunately, I don’t see her staying a mile. I’ve never felt that she would. I think [a tilt at the 1000 Guineas] it’s very unlikely, but the filly who finished fifth will,” Beckett added, referring to the Juddmonte-owned Juliet Sierra, who is closely related to Juliet Foxtrot, a Grade 1 winner in the US over a mile.

APPRENTICE jockey Aidan Keeley enjoyed the biggest winner of his career when winning the Cambridgeshire on Mick Channon’s Majestic, who came late to get the better of Bell Rock.

The 7lb claimer Keeley is the grandson of Stanerra’s regular partner Brian Rouse, one of the most under-rated riders of the 70s and 80s. The win meant Channon had landed two of the most historic handicaps, having saddled Johan to take the Lincoln earlier in the season.

Remarkably, Johan’s win at Doncaster in March came just a week after Majestic had made his first racecourse appearance – in a bumper at Kempton. Channon deserves credit for getting the four-year-old from that inauspicious start to winning one of the toughest handicaps of the flat season in six months, although it’s not unique for the Cambridgeshire winner to have started life in bumpers.

The late Mary Reveley’s grand mare Mellottie followed the same path before landing the big race in 1991. She went on to become a multiple listed winner, and Majestic, who was having his final race of the year, has the chance to progress again in 2023 given his late start in life.