Thursday’s best bets, by Chris Cook
Did you see Alhakmah yesterday? You know it’s Goodwood when your horse gets knocked sideways, crosses the entire width of the track and then finishes at improbable speed from a mile back to be beaten a neck. I imagine her trainer, Richard Hannon, was throwing things at the screen. That’s what I was doing, anyway.
If the Racing Gods have any fairness in them, they’ll make it right for me and Richard with a couple of winners in Sussex today. The one I’d really like, please, is Billesdon Brook (3.35), who is surely over-priced at 8-1 for the Nassau.
This is a race in which winners of the 1,000 Guineas have an excellent record and indeed the Classic winner has followed up in the Nassau for the last three years. Poor old Billesdon Brook, however, comes here as the fifth favourite in a field of six.
She was 66-1 when she won her Guineas and punters are slow to forgive horses that sandbag them like that. She’s had one subsequent defeat, at Royal Ascot, and that was evidently enough for most folk to go: “Ha! I knew it was a fluke.”
But she was given a fair bit to do from the back that day and made up a lot of ground relative to Veracious, who finished one place in front of her after getting the run of the race. This is a much smaller field, with no outstanding talent like Alpha Centauri, and the step up in trip should be good news for Billesdon Brook, whose pedigree is robust for a Guineas winner.
This return to Goodwood also looks like good news for her, as she won twice there in August last year. Of her opposition, only Urban Fox scares me and it remains to be seen if she can back up her Pretty Polly win, when the runner-up needed further and the third was never really put in the argument.
Hannon’s other big chance is with Bathsheba Bay (1.50), who ran well to be third in a hot race at Sandown last month, when a tongue tie was fitted for the first time. He finished a neck behind Alfarris, a winner here on Tuesday, and is only 1lb higher.
He also has course form, having chased home subsequent Derby runner-up Dee Ex Bee in a maiden at Goodwood a year ago. Annoyingly, the market has latched on to him since last night and 7-1 is the best available.
Pilaster (2.25) is napped at 5-2 for the Lillie Langtry, having shown a touch of class in victory at Kempton last time. She’s a half-sister to Windshear, who is a disappointing hurdler these days but, when he was the same age as Pilaster, was beaten just a neck in a Group Three at the Glorious meeting.
Andrew Balding has had a thin time of it so far this Goodwood but a useful juvenile has landed in his lap in the shape of Shine So Bright (3.00), who was with Karl Burke when he won his debut at Nottingham and then ran well to be fifth in the Coventry just nine days later. He needs to take a decent step forward but there’s every chance he can do that on this first outing for 44 days and there’s nothing terrifying about those ranged against the grey, for all that Marie’s Diamond appears a thorough professional. He’s 9-1.
Over in Ireland, Whiskey Sour (4.35) at 7-1 will do for me in the Galway Hurdle. Willie Mullins’s charge ran a fine race behind some stablemates at Royal Ascot and wasn’t far off the best novice hurdlers last winter. He’s just 2lb higher than when third in the County Hurdle, having come in for solid late support.
Goodwood 1.50 Bathsheba Bay (nb) 2.25 Pilaster (nap) 3.00 Shine So Bright 3.35 Billesdon Brook 4.10 Greenback Boogie 4.45 Accordance 5.20 Cowboy Soldier
Stratford 1.30 Hatcher 2.00 Royal Plaza 2.35 The Flame 3.10 Mystic Sky 3.45 Massini’s Lady 4.20 Mountain Of Angels 4.55 Seven Nation Army
Nottingham 2.10 Peal Of Qatar 2.45 James Street 3.20 Urban Aspect 3.55 Stringybark Creek 4.30 Sergio Leone 5.05 King Crimson 5.35 Bailarico
Ffos Las 5.30 Capla Gilda 6.05 Barossa Red 6.40 Our Power 7.15 Kinglami 7.45 Sky Rocket 8.15 La Maquina 8.45 Compton Abbey
Epsom 5.45 Top Beak 6.20 Clemento 6.55 Royal Big Night 7.30 Toy Theatre 8.00 Arigato 8.30 Don’t Cry About It
Tips by Chris Cook
