The star of the 2013 Brighton Festival was Beacon Lady.
She had improved since Sussex trainer William Knight ran her in a hood and tried her at Brighton the previous autumn, finishing first and second in admittedly very modest races. This year he was running her here every few weeks in June and July and she’d won twice and been second three times.
On the second day of the Festival she came from behind on the wide outside with a devastating run to win one of the meeting’s big races, the Brighton Challenge Cup over a mile and a half, by three lengths.
Despite those exertions Beacon Lady was turned out again the following day for a lower grade race, but that meant she had to carry an extra 22 pounds on her back. It wasn’t enough to stop her, and she won in the same brilliant style – in last place early and coming with a very wide run from three out for another easy three length triumph. The jockey this time was a seven-pound claimer called Oisin Murphy.
The filly disliked travelling, but after this there were few suitable races for her at Brighton (where her form figures were 1202122111) because her handicap rating had gone up from 51 to 79. She was seen next at Epsom for the Amateurs’ Derby, where a certain Mr Patrick Mullins steered her to yet another success in that exciting manner of hers. She won twice more at Epsom the following year, earning herself a mark of 99.
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