As most of you will know, I am a @unibetracing ambassdor and I will be writing daily blogs during the Qatar Goodwood Festival. Below are my thoughts on the horses heading to post on Day 1...
2:25 G2 Vintage Stakes
Mordred (Jim Crowley)
This is always a good race that produces plenty of decent horses and Dad won it five times but it would be nice to train the winner in my own name! Mordred ran a great race on debut behind his smart stablemate Neverland Rock (who could run in the Richmond on Thursday) and probably paid the price for doing a little too much in a decent Novice at Salisbury last time. The outside draw isn’t ideal and there’s no real reason why he can reverse that form with Federal Law but we’ll ride him a little more patiently, which will really help, and the track will suit him. He’s a smart horse with a bright future.
3:35 Goodwood Cup
We haven’t got a runner this year, like usual to be honest! But it looks a cracking race and almost a repeat of the Ascot Gold Cup. Stradivarius has done nothing wrong and looked as good as ever last time so I see no reason why he can’t win this again. He’s odds on for a reason but I think Call To Mind seemed to look even better for the step up to 2m last time and he wasn’t far behind the favourite at York in May so could out run his 10/1 odds.
4:10 Maiden
Dirty Rascal (Tom Marquand)
He won, but then lost it in the Stewards room at Ascot last time - which may be a blessing in disguise as we can run in a Maiden again! He’s absolutely thriving at home and is a horse we like a lot. I don’t think he’ll have any problems with the track and he’ll love the ground.
Watan (Ryan Moore)
He’s by Toronado, who won the Sussex here in 2013, and a colt we have an awful lot of time for. He was due to make his debut at Newbury a couple of weeks ago but we took him out because it was a little too fast so I’m hoping the bit of juice in the ground here will take the sting out. This is obviously a competitive introduction but he’s a very smart animal who should run a very big race under Ryan Moore.
5:15 Handicap Fillies’ Handicap
Elysium Dream (Tom Marquand)
She’s a real tough, hardy filly who rarely runs a bad race and ran well again at Newmarket last time. I own a share of her along with a great group of guys who love their racing and she gave us a great pay day in a big sales race at HQ last summer so she owes us nothing, although a win here would be huge! We’re going back up to a mile but this is a sharp track and they’ll go a good pace which will suit her running style. The ground isn’t an issue and she did an excellent piece of work last week so is in great form, my only concern is her outside draw which isn’t ideal.
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