Rod Millman continued his love affair with the Weatherbys Super Sprint, as Anthelia regained the winning thread to deny Royal Ascot winner Havana Hurricane in a thrilling finish to the Newbury feature.

Anthelia was sent off the 6-1 co second-favourite and looked booked for second when Eve Johnson Houghton’s Windsor Castle Stakes victor and 6-4 market leader Havana Hurricane burst onto the scene inside the final furlong.

Regular partner Lewis Edmunds was also conjuring maximum effort from the daughter of Supremacy, though, and after showing the blistering speed that had been a hallmark of her campaign to date, Anthelia stuck her head down to be rewarded with a short-head success.

“I didn’t know if she had got there and she had to make a bit of ground inside the final furlong as Eve’s horse got first run on us,” explained Millman.

“I don’t try to buy cheap horses, I try to buy nice horses cheaply. She’s a lovely filly to be involved with and we’re so lucky to have a nice filly like this.

“It’s a wonderful race for any trainer, but especially the small trainers and it kept me in business many years ago when I was struggling and then won it with Lord Kintyre. After that people sent me horses and we’ve been fine ever since.

“We always try to have a nice horse for it and I’ve spent a lot of money on entry fees as the trouble is you have to enter them before you know how good they are. So you’re sort of running for your own prize-money, but if you’re lucky enough to have the right horse it’s a great race.

“My wife always says, what’s mine is half hers and what’s hers is hers, so she’ll enjoy this.”

Connections had deliberately skipped Royal Ascot after landing Sandown’s Listed National Stakes earlier in the season, but suffered disappointment when trying six furlongs for the first time in Newmarket’s Empress Stakes last month.

However, having bounced back with a lucrative £134,092 haul, Anthelia could now go in search of further sales race bounty before dipping her toe in at a higher level.

“We’ll probably go for Harry’s Half Million (York, August 21) and then there’s some nice Group races later in the season,” said Millman.

“The Empress went wrong last time, but she’s a good filly and proved it today. It wasn’t that she didn’t stay in the Empress, she was just in the bad position but it wasn’t the jockey’s fault, it was my fault as I gave the instructions and I gave myself a good telling off afterwards.

“I think she’s quite nice, but it is always another ball game taking on the big girls. She’s effective over five and six furlongs and once you start trying to go further you’ve got to be a better class again to be effective at that distance, but I have not ruled it out.”

Johnson Houghton, meanwhile, could potentially seek immediate compensation at the Qatar Goodwood Festival with the runner-up having been thwarted in her continuing quest for a first Super Sprint victory.

Johnson Houghton said: “I’m thrilled but gutted is the best way of putting it, it’s my unlucky race.

“I’m pleased for Rod but gutted for us and I think if we hadn’t had the rain he might have won, but I can’t possibly say that as there is no way of knowing and the winner is a very good filly.

“She’s a Listed winner, we’re a Listed winner and they should have finished like that really as they are two good horses and two cheap horses we have done well with, so clever us – aren’t Rod and I clever.

“We might as well have a look at Goodwood now, but I don’t think he wants soft ground as it just dents his turn of foot. I don’t know if we’ll go go five or six furlongs just yet, I need to have a think about it.”

Rage Of Bamby is 33-1 winner of Hackwood Stakes

Rage Of Bamby produced a 33-1 shock in the Hallgarten And Novum Wines Hackwood Stakes at Newbury.

The winner of a Listed affair at Newmarket in October, Eve Johnson Houghton’s charge was well adrift of her best in her first two starts of this season, but was back to something like when not beaten far when sixth in a Group Three at York last weekend.

Despite that she looked to have it to do in a strong renewal at the same level, but was in the firing line from the off as she raced slightly away from the others on the near side of the pack, and while Regional and the gambled-on King’s Gamble looked like they would battle it out, Charlie Bishop had lots of horse underneath him and swept past to score by a length and three-quarters over King’s Gamble.

Johnson Houghton said: “We always had faith she would win a Group race, but that faith has been tested somewhat this year.

“She ran really well at York last time when possibly I had left her a bit short. I know it was a bit quick to run her back and it looked a Group One in all but name – I wasn’t expecting her to win, (but) I did think she would run a big race. On her day she is really good.”

For the winning syndicate Hot To Trot Racing it was a 100th winner since their formation, with members now able to dream of bigger days later in the season before the five-year-old bows out at the conclusion of the campaign.

Racing manager Sam Hoskins added: “We’ve been going since 2012 and it’s our 100th winner so to do it in a Group Three is really, really special. We have 80 members in the syndicate and it is just brilliant.

“Eve has always thought so much of her and it was quite a big decision for us to enter her in the Queen Elizabeth II Jubilee Stakes at Royal Ascot.

“But when she finished out the back of the television at York in the (1895) Duke of York (Stakes) it was really disappointing and she ran the same at Haydock the next time and she was almost borderline retirement. Because we lease the filly, it was a big decision for the breeder to keep her in training this year and we were feeling rather low.

“She has nothing to lose now as she will go off to stud at the end of the year, so she could maybe head to Haydock for the Sprint Cup or something, we’ve got to have a go.

“We’ll enjoy today first and we’re over the moon, it shows you have to always have a go, but I don’t think we saw this coming.”