Billesdon Brook one for all breeders operating on a budget

Billesdon Brook's victory in the Qipco 1,000 Guineas at Newmarket on Sunday will give encouragement to all mare owners without the means of the bloodstock superpowers, as she hails from smaller operators and was bred on a £5,000 nomination to Champs Elysees.

The Richard Hannon-trained filly was bred by the late Bob McCreery, a true renaissance man of racing as a former champion amateur rider, breeder of Classic winners High Top and Old Vic and an influential industry figure, at his Stowell Hill Stud.

She is raced by McCreery's widow Jeanette in partnership with friends and associates under the guise of Pall Mall Partners.

Billesdon Brook is out of Coplow, a daughter of Manduro who failed to win but was placed over 7f and 1m2f for the same owners, including when second to subsequent 1,000 Guinas runner-up Starscope.

Coplow hails from a family that McCreery made hay with. She is a half-sister to this season's European Free Handicap winner Anna Nerium – seventh behind her close relative Billesdon Brook in the Classic on Sunday – and to the ill-fated Horris Hill Stakes winner Piping Rock and Group 3 scorer Middle Club.

Coplow's dam Anna Oleanda – a winning daughter of McCreery's masterpiece Old Vic – entered the Stowell Hill Stud fold when bought for 45,000gns at the Tattersalls December Mares Sale in 2005. She had produced the useful Anna Mona to Manduro's sire Monsun for her previous owner Gestut Rottgen.

Anna Oleanda was in turn out of Anna Paola, an important blue hen for Sheikh Mohammed's breeding operation. She features as ancestress of top-class performers Anna Salai, Annus Mirabilis, Ave, National Defense and half-brothers Epaulette and Helmet – as well as Champion Hurdle heroine Annie Power and Sunday's Dahlia Stakes third Indian Blessing.

Billesdon Brook – by former Banstead Manor Stud sire Champs Elysees, now on dual-purpose duty under the Coolmore banner at Castle Hyde Stud – is the second foal bred by Stowell Hill Partners out of Coplow after Billesdon Bess, a daughter of the disappointing sire Dick Turpin who is a Listed winner and was sixth in the Dahlia Stakes earlier on the 1,000 Guineas card on Sunday.

Coplow's achievement of producing high-class horses from Dick Turpin – who has only that one stakes winner to his name – and Champs Elysees, who was standing at just £5,000 in the year Billesdon Brook was conceived, made her the Racing Post Bloodstock broodmare of the year for 2017.

The mare has a two-year-old filly by Showcasing, knocked down to John Gosden for 380,000gns at Book 2 of the Tattersalls October Yearling Sale last year – she has been named World's Fair – as well as a yearling filly by Sepoy.

"I'm just thrilled. It's nothing to do with me, it's all down to my late husband,” said Jeanette McCreery after the 1,000 Guineas.

"Coplow is in foal to Dubawi. It's wonderful. Champs Elysees is a very underrated sire as we have seen, but he's a jumping sire now. I might get a free nomination!"

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