Glorious Goodwood will open on Tuesday on rain-softened ground with several leading contenders on the first two days of the meeting already confirmed as absentees. They include Aidan O’Brien’s Gleneagles, the 2,000 Guineas winner who had been due to take on the outstanding French-trained colt Solow in the Group One Sussex Stakes on Wednesday.
Non-runners on Tuesday include Air Vice Marshal, also trained by O’Brien, who might have started as favourite for the Group Two Vintage Stakes, and Limato, one of the best juveniles of 2014 and a leading contender for the day’s £300,000 feature event, the Group Two Lennox Stakes.
Little rain is forecast for Goodwood on Tuesday but the course soaked up 18mm on Sunday and was officially described as good-to-soft, soft in places on the straight course on Monday evening. “Gleneagles is 100%,” Kevin Buckley, the UK representative of the colt’s owners, said after he failed to appear among eight final declarations for the Sussex Stakes. The going was the reason for his absence, Buckley said.
The possible meeting between Gleneagles and Solow had been widely anticipated since the opening day of Royal Ascot in June, when both horses won Group One events over a mile. In the absence of Gleneagles, Solow is expected to start as the odds-on favourite to give trainer Freddy Head his first success in a race that Alec Head, his father, took with Venture in 1960.
Glory Awaits, a 33-1 outsider, was also scratched from the field for the Lennox Stakes, leaving eight runners in Tuesday’s feature event, which Goodwood hopes will earn an upgrade to Group One status in the near future. Toormore, a Group One winner as a juvenile in 2015 and a recent purchase by the Godolphin operation, is the narrow favourite with most bookmakers at around 9-4, just ahead of Dutch Connection, the winner of the Jersey Stakes at Royal Ascot last month.
Legatissimo, the 1,000 Guineas winner, is the 2-1 ante-post favourite for Saturday’s Nassau Stakes at Goodwood after 11 fillies stood their ground for the Group One event at the five-day stage.
Diamondsandrubies, also a Group One winner already this season in the Pretty Polly Stakes at The Curragh in June, can be backed at 100-30, while Luca Cumani’s Lady Of Dubai, the winner of the Listed Height Of Fashion Stakes at Goodwood in May, is a 7-1 chance.
Tanzeel, an impressive winner at York on Saturday, is among the five-day declarations for Saturday’s Stewards’ Cup Handicap, but unlikely to take part according to Angus Gold, the racing manager to the gelding’s owner, Sheikh Hamdan al-Maktoum.
“Tanzeel has had plenty of problems to date, including a crack in his pelvis, and I’m not sure he’d be suited to running downhill at Goodwood,” said Gold, who added that he would be surprised if the gelding ran.
The Galway Festival, one of the biggest events in the Irish racing calendar, opened on Monday with a victory for Bachasson, trained by Willie Mullins and ridden by Ruby Walsh, in a two-mile novice hurdle.
Bachasson, the 5-4 favourite, carries the same colours as this year’s Arkle Trophy winner Un De Sceaux and won unchallenged by 16 lengths to confirm his considerable potential over timber this winter.
“This seems to be another lucky purchase [for Edward O’Connell, Bachasson’s owner],” Mullins said. “He didn’t cost the earth but he’s able to go and able to jump. He took no prisoners but that’s the kind of confidence he was giving to Ruby, to be able to do that.”
Bryan Cooper, who is retained as the No1 jockey to leading owner Michael O’Leary, will miss the Galway Festival for the third year running because of injury. Cooper suffered a dislocated thumb in a fall on 17 July and the injury will not heal in time for him to play a part in the seven-day Festival.
Heavy rain in Scotland has forced Perth to abandon its scheduled cards on Tuesday and Wednesday this week.
