Goodie Two Shoes sticks her neck out to edge Lillie Langtry battle

Goodie Two Shoes needed to be very brave as she added to Joseph O’Brien and Dylan Browne McMonagle’s fantastic week at Goodwood in the Qatar Lillie Langtry Stakes.

With three winners already in the bag, the JP McManus-owned Goodie Two Shoes was sent off an 8-1 chance to bag a first victory of the season but looked to face a tough ask as Santorini Star kicked for home.

She still had ground to make up with 100 yards to the line but the seven-year-old stuck her neck out right where it mattered to get the verdict by a nose.

Goodie Two Shoes was second in the Melbourne Cup in November and a return to Australia will surely now be on the cards following this Group Two triumph.

The winning rider said: “She’s a lovely filly, she’s improving all the time since she started coming back this year, she’s got better with each run.

“I was quietly confident today she would get a lot closer to these fillies, she ran well last year (third) when the ground turned up soft but she would gallop down the road for you, she handles quick ground. I got a lovely split through them and she wanted to win.

“To be honest I didn’t think I’d won but I looked back at the camera and she had her head stuck down for me at the right time; I did think Tom (Marquand) had won but we came out the right side of it.

“These are very, very special silks to put on. A big thanks to JP for putting me up and she’s going to have a nice campaign through to the end of the season.

“I’m sure the Melbourne Cup is probably the main target, the boys will know that and Joseph and JP will discuss it but I’d probably guess that’s the obvious target.”

Sir Anthony McCoy, representing McManus, said: “I didn’t think she had won but Jason Weaver said right on the nod, not before the line or after the line but right on the line, she put her head in the right place.

“She got a good ride – he was going to ride her for that bit of luck, down the inside, and he got a lot of luck. When you are as good as Dylan Browne McMonagle and you are 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’s 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 ran there off 123. It’s nice when you win races like this and hopefully she will be able to go back to the Melbourne Cup.”