The ITV racing team bring us four races from the opening day of the Glorious Goodwood. Stradivarius is the main attraction as he continues in his bid to land a remarkable second stayers’ Triple crown. I think Pinatubo can land the four-timer and extend his unbeaten record in the Vintage Stakes. There are two other quality races to enjoy and you can read all my thoughts below.
Goodwood Handicap
Godolphin’s Setting Sail looks set to jump off a strong favourite to take this handicap having finished runner-up at York earlier this month. He’s up four-pounds for that run but hasn’t been over-raced and is open to further progress.
The lightly-race Johnny Drama had won two races in Ireland in good style before looking like a non-stayer at Royal Ascot in the Duke of Edinburgh. He’s since joined the King Power team and must be taken seriously back down in trip.
Bless Him is a classy individual which he highlighted when winning the Britannia back in 2017. He hasn’t scored since but just missed out last time and is on a nice mark if he stays this longer trip.
Oisin has been firing in the winners of late and partners Solo Sizzler here who races off a career-high but stays further than this trip and has form figures of “12” at Goodwood.
Selection: Solo Sizzler
Vintage Stakes
Just the seven runners here but it looks like a good renewal of this Group 2 contest. Pinatubo has looked very exciting on all three starts and was an impressive winner of Chesham at Royal Ascot where he had the re-opposing Lope Y Fernandez over 3 lengths behind. Aidan O’Brien’s runner was only having his second start that day and is open to further progress.
The highest-rated runner in the field is Mystery Power who’s got the assistance of Silvestre in the saddle. He stayed on well to win the Group 2 Superlative on just his second run and could be hard to beat even with the penalty.
Mark Johnston broke his own record for the most winners in a month yesterday and has another smart runner here with Visinari who won on debut and then was a close third in the July Stakes. The extra furlong should bring about more improvement and could feature.
Selection: Pinatubo
Lennox Stakes
Zaaki seems to have got his act together this year and only just failed to pin back the ill-fated Beat The Bank in the Summer Mile. He’s never won over seven which has to be a concern but comes here in great form.
A horse that has appreciated the drop to seven furlongs is Hey Gaman. James Tate’s star won a Group 2 at Longchamp in May and wasn’t beaten far by former Irish 200 Guineas winner Romanised when last seen in the Minstrel.
Royal Ascot winner Space Traveller was a surprise winner of the Jersey and it’ll be interesting to see if he can back it up.
Selection: Hey Gaman
Goodwood Cup
This race sees the first, second and fourth from the Ascot Gold Cup re-oppose and in truth, it looks between these three horses. Stradivarius is the standout performer in the race and has been the star among the staying division for the past two seasons.
Dee Ex Bee was a length behind Stradivarius in the Gold Cup and I see a similar scenario laying out here. Cross Counter who finished just behind Dee Ex Bee that day was having his first run since March and could just spring a surprise here.
Selection: Cross CounterS
