RACING/York meeting: They called her father the Iron Horse, and yesterday Maids Causeway proved she is very much daddy's little girl. She has the same chestnut coat as Giant's Causeway, the same edgy attitude in the paddock and, most importantly, the same implacable determination to be in front at the line.

Before the Coronation Stakes, Maids Causeway had been out of the first three only once in nine starts, and when the Group race reached its conclusion, she did not so much win it as hold it in a neck-lock until it cried enough.

Even when she lost a shoe a few strides from the line, causing Michael Hills to stop riding for a split-second, Maids Causeway rose to the challenge one last time and overhauled Karen's Caper, the Nell Gwyn Stakes winner, who had been a head up with 100 yards to run.

The only shame was that Maids Causeway was lame as Hills pulled her up and was denied the appreciation from the crowd around the winner's enclosure her performance deserved. She is not thought to have suffered long-term damage, and any horse that finishes in front of Maids Causeway this season will know that it has been in a race.

"She's one of the bravest fillies that I've ever ridden," Hills said. "She's so tough, just like her father, and she thoroughly deserves a Group One for the races she's run.

"I was definitely headed by Karen's Caper but my filly just keeps digging in for you. When she's got another horse in her sights, she just does everything to keep her head in front. I felt her dip just before the line and I went to get hold of her. It shows how brave she is that she came up and went again."

Another of Maids Causeway's traits is the lather she works herself into during the preliminaries. Where this would normally be a cause for concern for paddock-watchers, it seems to have no effect on her race.

"She sweats like no horse I've ever ridden," Hills said. "I had my feet out of the irons almost until they jumped off just to try and settle her a bit, but the sweat just kept pouring out of her and she just wanted to get on with.

"But it doesn't seem to sap her energy, or if it does, then she must be some filly. If she was dry before a race, that's when we would start to worry."

Damson, the favourite for yesterday's race, was also warm in the paddock, but in her case she ran like a filly who was not in the mood. Virginia Waters, the 1,000 Guineas winner, also finished well beaten.

Jimmy Fortune was denied by a narrow margin in the main event, but both the jockey and John Gosden, the trainer of Karen's Caper, had been in the winner's enclosure 35 minutes earlier after Plea Bargain's success in the King Edward VII Stakes.

The winner had to survive a stewards' inquiry, having drifted left under a right-handed drive to cause interference to The Geezer. Fortune was banned for three days for careless riding, though the placings remained unaltered. Plea Bargain will now have a break before a possible run in the St Leger.

"I thought about running him in the French Derby but we decided to wait for this," Gosden said. "I will put him in the Leger and have a look and he will then join Godolphin, where I hope he will make a lovely four-year-old."