‘Glorious Goodwood’ Festival gets underway today (June 30) and William Hill’s Inside Track podcast returned to preview the five days of racing ahead.
Host Kate Tracey was joined by Former Jockey, Louis Steward, William Hill Ireland Ambassador, Jane Mangan, and Racing Pundit, Ross Brierley.
Steward, who raced Goodwood during his career, offered some insights on the intricacies of racing at the course.
He said: “Goodwood is a very tricky track. Jockeys play a big part in it and so do horses. The temperament of a horse is suited to a track and you need jockeys with a lot of patience. It’s one of them tracks where you wait and you wait again and time your run to perfection.
“It is very difficult to ride, you can get stuck on the fence so the jockeys look to peel off. It’s about adapting to how the track is run. Go fast to the first bend and because it’s so steep coming round and back down you can get a run early and horses can go too soon from the front.”
One of the first races previewed was Tuesday’s Lennox Stakes raced over seven furlongs by three-year-olds and over.
Both Mangan and Brierley agreed that Kinross should be the favourite for this race as he is “at his very best over this trip”.
Steward disagreed and said that he prefers English Oak as he is a horse that is “suited to this track”.
He added: “His run at Ascot was exceptional, I like his turn of foot and he’ll get a good pace with Audience making the run in. I think James [Doyle] will use that turn of foot in the final furlong. [Doyle] has said he’s full of speed so he needs a pace to run at and he can come back to six [furlongs] and at the same time seven [furlongs] is perfect.”
English Oak is currently the favourite to win the Lennox Stakes at 7/2 with William Hill while Kinross is at 4/1.
Moving on to Wednesday, the guests looked at the Sussex Stakes and offered up Notable Speech and Rosallion as potential winners, however, since recording the latter has been pulled from the race due to a respiratory infection.
Notable Speech was previously tipped for victory in the St James’s Palace Stakes during the Inside Tracks’s Royal Ascot preview only to be beaten by Rosallion and Henry Longfellow, who is also in this race.
Looking back on this result, Steward offered up some gossip that suggests Notable Speech could be in better form than when he was racing at Ascot.
He said: “He had three quick runs and was prepped perfectly for the guineas and then maybe took his foot off the gas before the St James’s Palace just to freshen him up but in hindsight probably made him run flat.
“I’ve heard through the grapevine that he did a racecourse gallop last week and it went very well so I would say that Charlie Appleby is throwing everything at this to have Notable Speech back in top form.”
He is currently at 7/4 to win the race with Henry Longfellow the current favourite at 6/4.
One of the final races of the meet is the Lillie Langtry Stakes on Saturday, and all three of the guests agreed that Queen of the Pride is the best-placed horse to take on and beat the favourite, Free Wind.
Queen of the Pride has had back-to-back wins at Haydock in the last two months and Steward describes her as “consistent and improving”.
Brierley added: “She’s progressed very quickly from novice company to winning group races. Free Wind, I just don’t trust her. She’s a bit tripless and the standard bearer but you want something to improve past her. That form line [for Queen of the Pride], I like her a lot.”
To end the show each of the guests, and Tracey, offered their best bet of the week.
Mangan picked out Jan Brueghel (10/11) in Thursday’s Gordon Stakes and said that he “won’t be beaten” while Brierley offered up Desperate Hero (14/1) in the King George Stakes on Friday.
Tracey and Steward suggested horses that featured in the preview, going with Kinross in the Lennox stakes and Notable Speech in the Sussex Stakes respectively.
