3 minute read
Goodwood's Thursday feature a top race.
Opera Singer had been receiving a lot of support pre-race and this was not misplaced as she easily won the G1 Nassau Stakes from See The Fire (one we have been following for a bit but didn't get her into our top four) with French raider Sparkling Plenty taking third. The disappointment in the race was Emily Upjohn who has looked to us for some time as if she would like very much to embark on her second career.
Earlier the Richmond was a great battle over the closing stages between Black Forza 9/1 and The Strikin Viking who is indeed a striking looking horse. In the end Black Forza just had that extra lunge in him to win in record time. Intrusively 40/1 just edged out Billboard Star for the third spot.
The Gordon Stakes saw Jan Brueghel give Aidan O'Brien and Ryan Moore the first of a double. It was a bit of a cake walk with only 5 horses running but it was a nice win just the same.
Friday's card has the Bonhams G3 over 1600m with 9 runners headed by Al Musmak on 5/2 for Varian-da Silva. The trainer has said he's worried if the ground becomes any drier as the predicted rain didn't fall on Goodwood. They are considering watering the course. Task Force is on 4/1 for Beckett-Ryan and Lead Artist 9/2 for the Gosdens and Shoemark, who must be asking for a change of luck.
The Qatar is G2 over 1000m with 12 runners and quite a few of them have good to very good chances here. Big Evs is the fav on 9/4 for Michael Appleby and Tom Marquand with our Aussie star Asfoora on 7/2 who should be enjoying the weather. Believing is keen to repeat the Ascot win for Boughey-Loughnane and is on 6/1 and the Czech trained Ponntos os on 12/1, hoping for third time lucky in this race. We also have to have a little something on Makarova who has been so good to us recently – 14/1.