Bedtime Story produces spectacular performance in Chesham Stakes

Bedtime Story shot to the head of ante-post lists for next year’s 1000 Guineas following a scintillating display in the Chesham Stakes on the final day at Royal Ascot.

A winner as an apparent second string for Aidan O’Brien at Leopardstown little over a fortnight ago, the daughter of Frankel and top-class sprinting mare Mecca’s Angel was a well-supported 11-8 favourite to double her tally.

Always travelling well in the slipstream of the keen-going pacesetter Motawahij, Bedtime Story left her rivals standing once given her head by Ryan Moore, accelerating an astonishing nine and a half lengths clear of her toiling rivals, with Pentle Bay pipping Brian to the runner-up spot.

O’Brien said: “We never let her go before, it’s the first time we’ve asked her to stretch and she just took off. We’ve treated her gently, she has unbelievable pedigree and she’s obviously very special.

“Ryan said he couldn’t believe it; he said everyone fell away, he said ‘go on’, and she just took off. He didn’t even give her a slap down the shoulder.

“It’s unusual for a filly to do that, she’d won nicely first time but we thought she was a Group One filly.

“You all saw what I saw, we won’t be looking for one that’s better, that is for sure.”

Moore said: “The only I time worked was pulling up really. She travelled very easy, they’ve gone too slow for her really.

“I had room at the three so we started going forward and the race was over very quickly. Obviously, she’s a level above all of them.”

When asked about comparisons with the stable’s Albany Stakes winner Fairy Godmother, he added: “It’s a hard one. They haven’t really been asked to do too much at home. We don’t know a whole about them, we don’t know what they’ve beaten yet, but they are two very exciting fillies.

“A performance like that, you don’t see normally.”

On how he will keep Fairy Godmother and Bedtime Story apart, O’Brien added: “There are plenty of races for them all, I think. She’ll be staying at seven furlongs, obviously.”

Derrick Smith and Michael Tabor, two of the Coolmore triumvirate along with John Magnier, were suitably impressed.

Smith said: “I asked Ryan if she was as good as she looked and he said ‘absolutely’. You can’t get better than that. They don’t win like that here. I’m speechless really.”

While Tabor said: “We expected her to win, but you never expect an animal to win the way she did.

“Unfortunately for Godolphin (Age Of Gold), the second in, which we thought was the obvious danger, was never going well. So I thought, in-running, that we would win. To win by nine or 10 lengths is incredible, though.

“Her and Fairy Godmother were both spectacular.”