William Hill ambassador Nick Luck previews the opening day of Glorious Goodwood.
Goodwood, Tuesday
CASTLE COVE has obvious claims in the ITV opener from the Visit Qatar Goodwood Festival this week (1:20pm). His Chester win has worked out so well that he is now 2 lbs better off with Grey Cuban, who will doubtless be one of the many driving forward for a share of the lead. Given the likely pace scenario, the selection should be able to partly offset a slightly wider draw than ideal and can get us off to a decent start. SILAWI makes some each-way appeal at bigger odds.
GOODWOOD GALAXY looks quite appealing at a big price in the Vintage (1:55pm). You’d like his trainer to have been firing in the winners a bit more regularly this year, but this was a rare wining debutant for the stable, and in some style. Lines through the runner-up don’t give him too much to find with Zavateri and, granted normal improvement, he shouldn’t disgrace himself. His pedigree offers significant hope that he’s up to stakes class.
LAKE FOREST keeps catching my eye in the Lennox (2:30pm). A sharp seven may be a little too sharp, but this will be a very well-run affair, with Audience, Jonquil, Witness Stand and Quinault all likely to fancy a piece of it. That should suit the selection, who can be readily forgiven a poor run at York, where he (not for the first time at that track) became restless in the preliminaries and got bumped at the start. The stable is hitting the turbo now, and this horse is a little overpriced here.
SWEET WILLIAM is joint top-rated in the Goodwood Cup, and makes each-way appeal (3:05pm). He was ridden experimentally prominently over a trip too far at Ascot, and finished pretty tired. He can be significantly upgraded, and probably would have been pretty close to Illinois if used more patiently. This track seems to suit him better anyway, with his two starts here yielding an impressive success and a fine effort behind Kyprios in last year’s edition.
ADRESTIA looks in a very feasible spot to resume winning ways (3:45pm). She was pretty impressive at Royal Ascot, and ran perfectly creditably against the bias at Sandown in pattern company, running on quite nicely despite being short of room. She ought not to lack the pace for this track, and might have the best of the draw.
