Beverley is set to get racy as thrilled Jilly Cooper bids for debut triumph

The queen of the bonkbuster comes to Beverley on Saturday when Jilly Cooper makes her racing debut in front of the ITV cameras, much to the delight of the world-famous author after whom the filly is named.

Five years on from the publication of Mount!, in which Cooper indulged her love of horses by writing a novel based around the world of Flat racing at its raciest, the story will be centred on fact not fiction when Jilly Cooper, trained and owned by Mark Johnston, runs for the first time in the Hilary Needler Trophy (2.00).

Enthusiastic racing fan Cooper based Master Quickly, one of the equine heroes of Mount!, on Hurricane Higgins, a horse trained by Johnston, who has returned the favour in the form of the £28,000 daughter of Lope De Vega.