Melbourne Cup runner-up Goodie Two Shoes (8/1) prevailed in an exhilarating photo finish to the Group 2 Qatar Lillie Langtry Stakes for Joseph O’Brien and owner J.P. McManus at Goodwood on Saturday.

Third in the 14-furlong contest 12 months ago, Goodie Two Shoes tracked front-runner Santorini Star before angling out approaching the final furlong as last year’s winner Waardah challenged widest of all.

All three were virtually in line passing the half-furlong marker, with Goodie Two Shoes finding most to edge out a game Santorini Star (4/1) by a nose. Waardah (9/4 favourite) was just a head further back in third.

Winning jockey Dylan Browne McMonagle said: “Goodie Two Shoes is a lovely filly. She has been improving all the time since she came back this year and has got better with each run. I was quietly confident today that she would get a lot closer to these fillies. She ran well last year when the ground turned soft, but she would gallop down the road for you and handles quick ground. She got a lovely split through them and really wanted to win.

“These are very, very special silks to put on. A big thanks to JP [McManus] for putting me up. She is going to have a nice campaign through to the end of the season. I am sure that the Melbourne Cup is probably the main target. The boys will know that, and Joseph [O’Brien] and JP will discuss it, but I would guess that is the obvious target.”

A.P. McCoy, representing JP McManus, said: “I did not think she had won. She got a good ride. Dylan was going to ride her for that bit of luck down the inside, and he got plenty of it. When you are as good as Dylan Browne McMonagle and riding for Joseph O’Brien, you seem to get a lot of luck.

“Dylan was over at mine a few times when he was 11 or 12. He is very mechanically correct, like Ryan Moore, and he has got that chip – that little thing where he could go the wrong way. I mean it in a good way. As Frankie found out one day at Ascot, he has that little edge to him.

“She was second in a Melbourne Cup and I thought she had been quite well handicapped for the Galway Plate if she had run there! It is nice when you win races like this and, hopefully, she will be able to go back to the Melbourne Cup.”

Tom Marquand said of Santorini Star: “I thought Waardah had beaten us at the furlong pole, but this filly is superb, she just fights back. For a second, I could feel Dylan’s horse carrying us forward to the line, but it was heads up, heads down and, unfortunately, she was on the wrong side of it. She has been campaigning at a really high level and is going great, so hopefully there is a big one in her this year.

He added: “She just has this behind-the-bridle way of going. It is her biggest asset, but it also makes her quite tricky to ride because it is very hard to judge the tempo on her. It is an asset, though, because she is saving gas all the way round. She has her own way of going and it has meant we have been able to campaign her at a really high level. She is super reliable.”

Waardah’s trainer Owen Burrows said: “She has run an absolute blinder again. We can be nothing but pleased with her. It is just slightly annoying to be beaten by such a short distance again, but she has run a really good race. She does have a bit more of a preference for some ease in the ground, but you could probably say that about most of the field. It could be the Park Hill next. She is also in the Irish St Leger. Let us see how she comes out of this. Callum said she handled the ground fine. She is in on Arc weekend. We shall see.”