The Group One action at this year’s Glorious Goodwood is now in the form book, and while there were five winning favourites on Thursday’s card, including Winter in the Nassau Stakes, there is still a good deal of punters’ money in the bookies’ satchels after two very difficult opening days.
Valuable and competitive handicaps are the centrepiece of the final cards on Friday and Saturday, offering a chance to recoup at least some of the losses, and the likelihood that most backers will end up digging a deeper hole. Friday’s Betfred Mile, though, does give the punters a chance because the draw, as so often, is likely to be crucial.
It takes a Group-class horse to defy a wide stall in this race, or an overly strong pace that stretches the field and creates a little more running room. As it turns out, there was a Group One winner drawn in stall 16 but Here Comes When, who sloshed through the mud to win Wednesday’s Sussex Stakes, is an inevitable non-runner on Friday, while the soft ground should keep the pace sensible.
GM Hopkins, in stall one, is a hold-up horse who shows his best form on straight tracks, while Birchwood, in two, has not shown much this year. Master The World ran well in this race last year but from a similar draw, and is 3lb higher now.
Zhui Feng, the Hunt Cup winner, seems best on fast ground, which leaves Tony Curtis (3.00) as the first horse out from the rail with an obvious chance and form with cut in the ground. Richard Hannon’s gelding finished an excellent fourth in the Bunbury Cup last time up but ran as if a return to this trip will suit and could still have some room for improvement after a dozen starts over the past three seasons.
Battaash (3.35) has made rapid strides in two races this season to be one of the highest-rated three-year-old sprinters around, and should continue his progress in the Group Two King George Stakes. Quayside (4.10) stumbled in the early stages of his last start and beat only one opponent home but his earlier win in a good time at Hamilton gives him every chance in the nursery, while Walton Street (5.15) was value for much more than his winning margin on his belated racecourse debut last month and his opening mark of 84 looks lenient.
Friday’s tips
Goodwood 1.50 Scarlet Dragon 2.25 Beat The Bank 3.00 Tony Curtis 3.35 Battaash 4.10 Quayside (nap) 4.40 Mix And Mingle 5.15 Walton Street (nb)
Bangor 1.30 Jazz Thyme 2.00 Wynford 2.35 The Clock Leary 3.10 Mercian King 3.45 Mister Universum 4.20 Sindarban 4.50 Ange Des Malberaux
Thirsk 1.40 Jean Paget 2.10 Tulip Fever 2.45 Angel Force 3.20 George Dryden 3.55 Vindicator 4.30 Ingleby Mackenzie 5.00 Canford Bay 5.35 Point Of Woods
Bath 5.30 Swing Out Sister 6.05 Seamster 6.35 Coronation Cottage 7.10 Seafarer 7.40 Banff 8.10 Madeleine Bond Musselburgh 5.40 Falcon’s Fire 6.10 Collateral 6.45 Pepys 7.20 Longroom 7.50 Camacho Chief 8.20 Valentino Boy 8.50 Pearl Acclaim
Newmarket 5.20 Peace Dreamer 5.55 Rowlestonerendezvu 6.25 Gabr 7.00 Game Starter 7.30 My Dad Syd 8.00 Kunani 8.30 Firefright
