Buick all smiles as he edges Joviality to Musidora win

HEAD down, and using hands and heels to maximise his mount’s chance, William Buick strained every last sinew aboard Joviality to deny Barefoot Lady and Paul Hanagan – the pride of Yorkshire – in the Tattersalls Musidora Stakes at York.

The winning rider, his cherubic face reddened by the physical exertion of this one and a quarter mile test, was a study of concentration as he denied the reigning champion jockey in a pulsating finish to the Dante meeting’s first-day highlight.

In outmuscling Hanagan on Joviality, who was victorious for the first time from three starts, Buick – winner of last year’s St Leger – showed why he is regarded by many as a champion jockey in the making.

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This master tactician played his hand late on the 5-1 chance. Aidan O’Brien’s Amazing Beauty made the early running before the favourite Arizona Jewel appeared poised to give the incomparable Henry Cecil a 10th victory in this Epsom Oaks trial.

Yet it was Joviality and Barefoot Lady who pulled clear in the final furlong, with Hanagan’s mount the likely winner until Buick’s piece of brilliance from his small saddle as he maintained his balance and the horse’s equilibrium.

With Joviality’s eyes as red as Buick’s face, he knew that he could not resort to the whip in the final strides.

The filly was so tired that she could have veered off course, handing victory to the ultimate runner-up.

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As such, it is understandable why this battling filly is the jockey’s personal favourite at trainer John Gosden’s yard.

“You saw why. She’s got everything you want in a horse, really. She’s not bred to go this far and I felt she was tieing up a bit towards the finish,” said the 22-year-old Northern Racing College graduate.

This explains why the French Oaks, rather than the more challenging Epsom Oaks, will be Joviality’s next target while the Richard Fahey-trained Barefoot Lady, fifth in the 1000 Guineas, will have a lay-off.

It was a difficult day for Hanagan. His mount Chiswick Bey was earlier beaten by stablemate Common Touch, and jockey Freddie Tylicki, following a dour struggle between two of Fahey’s horses.

Hanagan’s Mica Mika was then denied by title race rival Ryan Moore’s Sud Pacifique in the finale.