• Newmarket 66-1 shock takes even Richard Hannon by surprise

• Levey: ‘I’ve been working a long time to get to this moment’

Billesdon Brook and Sean Levey win the Qipco 1,000 Guineas at Newmarket from Laurens.

(Photograph: Steve Davies/racingfotos/Rex/Shutterstock)

Billesdon Brook stunned her connections and most punters by winning the 1,000 Guineas at 66-1, the longest-priced runner to land this Classic in its 210 years.

She became the biggest success in the career of her 30-year-old jockey, Sean Levey, and is the second Classic winner trained by Richard Hannon, who was so taken aback he could not immediately remember whether he had entered her for the Coronation Stakes at Royal Ascot (he had not).

Levey is being hailed by some as the first black jockey to win a British Classic race, though he describes himself as “international”, born in Swaziland to an Irish father, a former jockey, and a Swazi mother. “When I go to Africa I am white, when I come to England I am black, when I am in America, I am Mexican,” he said in a 2016 interview before riding in the Derby. 

 “It feels great,” Levey said in the winner’s enclosure. “I’ve been working a long time to get to this moment and I’m glad it’s come. I didn’t expect it today. I thought she deserved the chance to be here and run well but to win it the way she did, it wasn’t one of my expectations.

“It means an awful lot. I’ve been riding quite a while now. I’ve always had great support, always rode loads of winners. Rode in a load of good races. I’ve just never seemed to be able to find that good one.”

Laurens was second while Happily, the Aidan O’Brien-trained favourite, could finish only third. O’Brien reported his Mendelssohn to be unhurt by the barging he suffered in Saturday’s Kentucky Derby, in which he was eased down to finish last.