Perhaps it was the starting price of 2-5 or lingering disappointment that a “Duel on the Downs” with Gleneagles had failed to materialise, but Freddy Head almost seemed to be asked to make excuses for the winner after Solow’s half-length success in the Sussex Stakes. “He’s winning and it was not a fast-run race, so you can’t go away in a race like that,” Head said. “He is getting a bit lazy with age, too. It’s enough.”
It was certainly enough to secure the grey’s eighth victory in a row, the last four of which have come at Group One level. Enough, too, to make Solow odds-on with some bookmakers for the Queen Elizabeth II Stakes at Ascot in mid-October. But not yet enough to end any arguments about the identity of the season’s best miler, which is still a question for another day.
Solow did all that could be asked here on a track that is very different to Meydan, Longchamp and Ascot, where he had done his winning so far this year.
Arod, who has found his calling as a miler this year after finishing fourth in last season’s Derby, was the obvious front-runner in the field and set only the steady pace that was required. He is rated only 6lb behind Solow and had the run of the race in front but, when Maxime Guyon asked Solow to run him down, there was never any doubt that the favourite would get there. Arod finished second, with the 50-1 Gabrial another two-and-a-quarter lengths away in third.
It was a smooth, efficient performance ahead of the decisive championship events of autumn but whether Solow will ever walk into a set of starting stalls alongside Gleneagles must now be the subject of considerable doubt. Paddy Power and Hills make Solow an even-money chance for the QEII, with Gleneagles on offer at 3-1, but if the ground here was too slow for the Guineas winner, it is unlikely that Ascot in October will be more suitable.
“He saw daylight all through the race when we usually like to have him covered a bit,” Head said, “but he was always well‑balanced and never got into any trouble with the ups and downs. Maxime said that he was always confident that he was going to win. It developed into a bit of a sprint, so the winning distance was never going to be huge, that’s why he won by half a length.
“His next race will be Ascot and the softer the ground, the better for him. I don’t think he will run before that and after he will have a well-deserved vacation.”
Arod may be a more likely opponent for Gleneagles later this year as he too prefers fast ground. “He is really filling out and I think he’ll be even better as a five-year‑old,” Peter Chapple-Hyam, his trainer, said. “I would say he would probably wait for the Moulin [at Longchamp in September] but it has to be somewhere with fast ground. The Breeders’ Cup is at Keeneland this year but, although he does go round a turn, I think that would almost be too tight a track.”
King Of Rooks, who was an expensive beaten favourite at the Royal meeting last month, let his backers down again when he could finish only second behind Kachy in the Group Three Molecomb Stakes over five furlongs.
Frankie Dettori came with a strong challenge in the final furlong aboard King Of Rooks, an even-money chance, but he was in the middle of the track while Kachy and Richard Kingscote could run against the stands’ rail and Tom Dascombe’s runner stayed on well to win by three-quarters of a length.
“I thought Kachy would win and told anybody who would listen that he would,” Dascombe said. “I knew he was good and first knew six months ago. We have got better two-year-olds but probably not as fast.”
Richard Hughes, who retires from race-riding at the end of the week, went through a second blank afternoon at a meeting he has often dominated in the past, finishing second on both Winter Rose, behind Alamode in the maiden, and Nancy From Nairobi, who was beaten by the favourite, Tazffin, in a fillies’ handicap. Tazffin’s jockey, James Doyle, is now the only rider with two wins at the meeting.
William Twiston-Davies made the most of his only ride on the card when Sands Of Fortune led throughout in the Goodwood Stakes over two miles and five furlongs. The field runs up the home straight at the start of the race, which makes starting stalls impractical, and Twiston-Davies got a useful jump on his field as the tape went up, which few of his opponents seemed eager to challenge until Sands Of Fortune was gone beyond recall.
“I actually wanted to drop in sixth or seventh,” Twiston-Davies, riding for his father, Nigel, said, “but I jumped out and he gallops all day. I’m chuffed because it’s hard living up to the family name with Sam [the leading jump jockey] and dad. I’ve been waiting for a winner like this.”
