Hi all,
Inside today's main piece I'm previewing the feature race on Day 1 of the Qatar Goodwood Festival the Goodwood Cup.
The Qatar Goodwood Festival – better known as Glorious Goodwood – gets underway on Tuesday. There’s no nicer place to watch racing, in my view, than Goodwood. On a sunny day, it’s the most beautiful course in the world.
When the sea mist rolls in or the rain arrives, it’s another story. But when the weather behaves, it’s pure magic.
As a festival, it lacks the depth of Royal Ascot, or the quality York delivers at its Ebor Festival. Like Galway, it drags on a bit – five days is two too many for me – with too many races padding it for five days. Tuesday’s opener even has eight races. Goodness knows why.
ITV Racing will be showing the first five live from the Sussex Downs – three Group races and two big-field handicaps.
Over in Ireland, it’s Day 2 of the Galway Festival. The Colm Quinn BMW Mile Handicap (6:40) is the feature with a €70,800 prize to the winner and always a fiendishly tricky puzzle.
I'll be doing short columns for the Daily Punt throughout the week. So, if you want my daily Goodwood and Galway previews, plus my picks for the York Ebor Festival, you can get them here.
Stop Press: A great start for subscribers at Galway yesterday evening. They were on the big gamble Filey Bay at 16/1 in the feature race and had the runner-up Mon Coeur at 28/1. Not a bad start to the week bagging the 1-2 in a competitive 20 runner handicap.
Qatar Goodwood Festival – Day 1
The feature race on Day 1 of Glorious Goodwood is the Group 1 Goodwood Cup (3:05). It headlines a strong supporting card.
The Chesterfield Cup Handicap kicks things off at 1:20 with a full field of 18 over 1m2f. Kinross goes for a third straight win in the Group 2 Lennox Stakes (2:30), while some smart juveniles line up for the Group 2 Vintage Stakes (1:55), run over the same trip as the Lennox.
I don’t have time to go through the full Goodwood card today, but here’s an abridged version of Victor Value preview of the race.
3:05 – Al Shaqab Goodwood Cup Stakes (Group 1) – 2m
Illinois was no match for Trawlerman in the Gold Cup, but Aidan O’Brien insisted he hadn’t trained the colt for the race. If that’s true, he’ll take plenty of beating dropped back to two miles. The pick of Ryan Moore
O’Brien also sends over Scandinavia, who shaped like a future Cup horse when landing the Group 3 Bahrain Trophy at Newmarket over 1m 5f. Today’s two miles looks a plus, and as a 3-year-old he gets a hefty 14lb weight pull. Big chance and gives the trainer a strong hand in the race.
French Master won a handicap here (1m 6f) two starts back and improved again for the first time blinkers when winning the Copper Horse Handicap at Royal Ascot (1m 6f) last time. Looks ready for two miles. He’s improving fast and is unexposed at this trip.
Sunway was second in the Irish Derby and third in the St Leger last year. He showed a bit more spark in the Hardwicke Stakes at Royal Ascot last time and could improve again now stepping up in trip. Worth a look.
Dubai Future was seven lengths behind Illinois in the Gold Cup. That was a passive ride to pick up prize money and he shaped better than the bare result. Christophe Soumillon is an interesting booking and he’s overpriced based on his Dubai Gold Cup win at Meydan in April. Great each way value if all eight runners do stand their ground.
Good luck with your Glorious Goodwood and Galway bets.
John