Anna Nerium increases her value to Stowell Hill Stud with Derby Day victory

Jeanette McCreery was quick to deflect all praise towards her late husband Bob after Anna Nerium extended the legacy created at Stowell Hill Stud with victory in the Group 3 Princess Elizabeth Stakes at Epsom on Saturday.

In time, Anna Nerium will be another valuable returnee to the Somerset paddocks along with Billesdon Brook, a fellow Stowell Hill graduate who netted last year’s 1,000 Guineas at 66-1.

Both are in training with Richard Hannon, who understandably was the centre of attention in the aftermath of this Group 3 prize as the filly had become the 1,000th winner of his career.

View result and race replay here

Yet Bob McCreery was close in the thoughts of the congregation around his widow too, the much-missed stud master having nurtured the likes of the 1989 French and Irish Derby winner Old Vic, the 1972 2,000 Guineas victor High Top, Anshan and Gale Force Ten.

A champion amateur National Hunt rider in the 1950s, he died on Christmas Eve, 2016, aged 86, and played a large role within the Thoroughbred Breeders’ Association, Injured Jockeys Fund and the European Breeders’ Fund.

Pleasingly, the outstanding jumps stallion Old Vic, who died in 2011, appears closely in the pedigree of Anna Nerium as he is her damsire. Broodmare Anna Oleanda, bought by Stowell Hill for 45,000gns at Tattersalls in 2005, has gone on to produce a plethora of winners including Piping Rock, the unbeaten Horris Hill-landing juvenile and the Group-class Middle Club. The four-year-old is her last foal.

Guineas winner Billesdon Brook has been another high flyer for Jeanette McCreery (left of jockey Sean Levey)Credit: Edward Whitaker

"It was marvellous but my husband did all the breeding, he bred her and everything," said Jeanette McCreery. "She went to the sales, I was told not to but I bought her back [for 300,000gns at Tattersalls Book 1]. She’s so tough, she’s lovely with a lot of quality."

Anna Nerium, with most of the season left, is surely going to rise clear at the top of her mother’s standings. She clinched the Dick Poole at Salisbury as a juvenile, was seventh behind Billesdon Brook in the Guineas and also struck in the Group 3 Supreme Stakes at Goodwood last season.

Runner-up in this event 12 months ago, the daughter of Dubawi produced a show-stopping turn under Tom Marquand to come from last to first, and widest of all, as she drew a length and a quarter away from Awesometank.

Hannon, who was congratulated by friends and family on reaching his milestone, did not rule out the Duke of Cambridge Stakes at Royal Ascot, for which she is entered, and suggested that the Prix Rothschild at Deauville would be a viable Group 1 target further down the line.

McCreery was understandably rather overcome with excitement, too.

"She’s not for sale, she’s going to come home to the stud at the end of the year, unless Mr Hannon says differently," she said.

"There are not many left of the family but we’ve got relatives. We’re just so thrilled. It’s nothing to do with me, I’m just carrying on. It’ll be downhill from now on, but it’s brilliant for everyone at home, they’ll be there hitting the television and screaming."

If you enjoyed reading this, you might also like...

A first for Frankel and the marvel of Meon Valley: Anapurna's breeding in focus

Coronation Cup hero Defoe a new Group 1 winner for retired Dalakhani