One of Rizzel’s selections was announced as a non-runner so we were left with only the 3 selections on Thursday.
Unbreak My Heart was never involved throughout his race while my other selection One Look ran a stinker at Galway, which was surprising given her past form on softer ground conditions.
This is as competitive as it gets, but with Bet365 offering 5 places, I thought the David O’Meara-trained Orbaan represented a good each-way angle into this at 16/1, and he could go well with a handy draw in stall 4 under jockey Silvestre De Sousa.
The David O’Meara yard is flying this season, and he holds some solid chances throughout the day at Glorious Goodwood with Get Shirty in the opener another one to note. He also runs Blue For You, Darkness and Rhoscolyn in this contest with Blue For You shading favouritism at 11/2 on the back of his impressive win at York in a class 2 handicap last time out.
It might be a bit crazy going for Orbaan, who comes here as the oldest horse in the lineup at the age of 9, but I can’t help but feel he has a solid chance. Orbaan returned to winning ways at Carlisle two starts back before finishing fourth over the same C&D two weeks later. My selection is back down to a mark of 87, a mark that he was successful at when winning this same contest two years ago. As already mentioned, Goodwood tends to favour those from a lower draw, and from stall 4 under a low weight, I’m hoping De Sousa can pop out on him and keep it simple. You always need luck in running in these big field handicaps but at 16/1, I couldn’t let him go unnoticed in the market.
I’m a massive fan of the Eve Johnson yard, In particular her youngsters in which she tends to do very well with. This is another ultra-competitive affair but I like the chances of her runner Tanager, who at 10/1 looks a nice each-way play with Bet365 offering 5 places in this race.
My selection does come with his risks as he tends to run quite freely throughout his races. He is still lightly raced, having only run the four races to date, so there is the possibility he will mature with experience. Tanager was gelded before stepping foot onto a race course and I’m yet to see him grow out of that habit. With that said, It’s hard to knock his performances so far, and the fact he’s performed as well as he’s done despite running green tells me if he’s able to settle a bit better throughout, then he can definitely make his presence felt.
He finished third last time out at Salisbury in a class 2 over 6f. I thought that was a cracking effort given he was conceding weight all around that day, and only finished 3L of the eventual winner Caburn. The form of that effort reads well with Caburn following up next time out when landing the class 2 Super Sprint at Newbury last month. There is plenty of pace on offer in this race, which I’m hoping will allow Tanager to settle a bit better throughout the race. He’s drawn nicely in stall 5 and can go well under Charles Bishop at an attractive price of 10/1.
I do think Al Musmak is the one to beat, and he’s not a terrible price to have a bet on him, as I was expecting shorter. However, I am going to take a chance on Socialite who was behind the Varian horse last time out at Newmarket.
Charlie Hills is having a terrible time of things at the minute, with zero winners in the last 15 days, but the majority of the runners have been double-priced, so it looks worse on paper than what it probably is. That isn’t enough to put me off backing Socilate who is an each-way price and could easily get his own way in front in this race. I managed to catch his last race at the time it went off and at the finish I thought the horse to take out of it was Socialite as he did a lot of things wrong, but ran with credit and with more experience behind him and maybe some headgear, he could be a real force at this level over a mile. Connections haven’t opted for any headgear just yet, but I think that Goodwood could be a track which suits him down to the ground.
Socialite is a free-going horse, we’ve seen that on every start so far (three career starts), and last time out was by far the worst. Tom Marquand really struggled to keep control of him and in the end, had to let the horse do his own thing and that was to race on his own away from the others and he went at least 10L clear early into the race. The closers did get to him, but other than the winner, he plugged on and I thought that was ridiculous how he managed to do that given how much energy he expended in the first half. Goodwood is a much less testing track than Newmarket, and the downhill finish to the line will make it a lot easier for him to get home. If, and it’s a big if, Tom can settle him a fraction better, he could potentially run from the front and be a very tough nut to crack, as he clearly has a big engine as I’ve already stated, and as we’ve seen on countless times this festival, horses can struggle to get a run from in behind, especially if they are off the bridle, which I think Socialite can achieve here.
I don’t think this is a particularly strong race, with many in this having underperformed on last year’s runs, so I can see my lightly raced selection improving and grabbing a place at the very least.
This is going to be a cracking race and it’s going to be fast and furious as we have perfect summer flat racing ground and it’s on one of the quickest 5f tracks in the world. There is a lot of pace in this race with the likes of Desperate Hero, Big Evs and Live In The Dream all likely to set a frantic pace, and it might set it up for a closer if they take each other on. I am opting for the fastly improving horse Starlust to pick up the pieces late in the race.
Starlust has been campaigned as a 6f horse for the most of his short career so far, but his best runs have come when he’s been running over 5f. Today’s test raises new questions as this is going to be a serious speed test, but given the way he has been finishing off his races at this distance, I think he could be outpaced before staying on very strongly, whether there will be enough time to run down those ahead of him only time will tell, but I think he could upset the applecart. He has only run over today’s trip three times, which has seen him win twice and finish third at the Breeder’s Cup Juvenile Sprint Turf behind Big Evs where things didn’t quite go to plan. If you are a fan of Big Evs, you’ve got to be wary of Starlust as in America Big Evs got to the front and didn’t have a troubled passage whereas Starlust tried making ground before the turn and nearly when in the back of a horse in front him, and due to the nature of Santa Anita, that made life difficult when trying to make ground when they were on the straight.
Starlust has done nothing but improve this year over 5f, he is 2/2 at York and his most recent run was a very impressive victory. The level of horse he beat isn’t on the same level he is up against today, but he did it with ease when Hector Crouch asked him to go and win his race, and his winning margin of 1.5L could’ve easily been a length or more if Hector wanted to.
Ralph Beckett’s yard is in tremendous form has already notched in a couple of winners at the Glorious Goodwood festival so I’m expecting a big run from their progressive sprinter.
Orbaan
Goodwood –
3:00 pm
Tanager
Goodwood –
4:45 pm
Socialite
Goodwood –
2:25 pm
Starlust
Goodwood –
3:35 pm
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