Persuasive grabs Group 1 glory for Gosden and Dettori

Persuasive was found wanting in four successive Group 1 races against her own sex, yet pitched in against the boys she delivered in style in by far the most valuable race she has run in.

Her success was no surprise to John Gosden however, who has such an exceptional team of fillies this year, and no great surprise to Frankie Dettori, for whom the QEII has been especially good.

It was clearly not a surprise to shrewder punters either, for having been available in a place at 33-1 first thing in the morning her odds contracted sharply in the last few minutes before the off and she was returned a mere 8-1 chance (from 14-1 on course).

Only three weeks previously Gosden had pulled off a similar trick with the brilliant Enable in the Arc, and after the Cheveley Park-owned Persuasive had quickened smartly past favourite Ribchester with a furlong to run and won readily by a length he explained why he enjoys taking on the males at this time of year, especially with fillies who enjoy autumn ground.

Gosden said: "It never worries me taking the colts on late in the year with a filly. I think they go through hell through the spring into the summer, coming into season and out of season, and hormonally they are a bit like a boy growing up.

"Then when they come to late summer and autumn everything is settled and they can focus on racing."

He added: "I thought the jockey might have been unlucky as he went up a blind alley and had to come out of it again and switch.

"She'd have been a very, very unlucky loser, but she's a talented filly who has had no luck in the Group 1s. Things have gone wrong for her before, but they've gone right today.

"She's a very good filly and I'm thrilled with her. We've waited for this ground as she loves it. She deserves it, and Nathra has run a blinder too in fourth. They're now both off to the breeding shed."

Persuasive was Dettori's sixth winner in the race and he is now just two short of Willie Carson's record. Significantly, he enjoyed his first ever Group 1 win in the race, and his four winners in between include Dubai Millenium, a six-length winner in similarly testing ground in 1999.

He said: "The QEII is a special race for me – if you go back to 1990 Markofdistinction was my first Group 1 winner. It brings back some good memories.

"Persuasive has been knocking on the doors in Group 1s for a long time now. She deserves this.

"Looking at the line up I thought if we get third we'd done well, as there were Group 1 winners all over the place.

"The key thing is she got the ground. She was a good thing with 8st 9lb in the Sandringham last year."

If soft ground was key to Persuasive's success, it arguably played just as big a part in the downfall of the Richard Fahey-trained favourite Ribchester, who was bidding for a fourth Group 1 of the year but had also been beaten on testing ground in the Sussex Stakes.

With hindsight he was committed plenty soon enough, but William Buick is adamant he wants much quicker ground.

Buick said: "He's a fast ground horse. His best performance was here in the Queen Anne. The filly likes the ground and quickened past me very well, but on good ground I think the result would have been different."

He added: "He's held his form since March and ran all the way to the line. He always comes back and is a formidable horse. Richard's done a great job with him."

Fahey said: "I shouldn't blame the ground because he has won on soft ground, but he's such a good moving horse.

"William feels he has come there to win, and win well, and he just got blunted in the dead ground. He just doesn't put it to bed. The winner coped with it better. That's twice he's been beaten in desperate conditions.

"I can't even think about what next until we see how he is. I'm proud of him, but disappointed. His best run for me was Royal Ascot where the ground was quick and he broke a track record."

QEII result and analysis