Emily Dickinson delights Aidan O'Brien ahead of Qatar Goodwood Festival

Having finished fourth behind Courage Mon Ami in the Gold Cup, the Dubawi filly outclassed her opposition with a three-length victory in the Curragh Cup last week.

She has reportedly come out of the race well and could now take her chance at next week's Qatar Goodwood Festival.

“Emily Dickinson came out of the Curragh very well," O'Brien said.

"Ryan (Moore) was happy with her and felt she won very easily. She is a filly we really fancied for the Gold Cup. She ran a good race and came out of it well.

“She loved the ease in the ground at the Curragh. She comes out of races on fast ground perfectly, which suggests it does not bother her, but she appears much better with an ease in the ground. It hinders other horses, whereas she appears to grow another leg on soft ground.

“Since the Goodwood Cup has been upgraded to a Group One, it has been brilliant. It is a very prestigious race and a unique race because two miles on the Goodwood track is very different. It is a difficult race to win but we always try to have a horse that is good enough to win it.”

The going at Goodwood is currently Good to Soft and Ed Arkell, Goodwood’s Director of Racing and Clerk of the Course, expects conditions to remain on the easy side.

“It has been a lovely day here," he revealed.

"We were Good to Soft this morning and it will be drying back a bit at the moment. There is some rain coming in this evening, with best estimates of eight to 12mm. We are then looking drier through the rest of the week to Sunday, with the odd shower about, and then there looks to be some rain on Monday.

"Again, the forecasters are not overly confident about what may or may not happen. We shall see what happens but it looks like we will start the meeting on the easier side of Good.”

O'Brien is likely to send a typically strong team to Sussex and other possible runners include Never Ending Story (Qatar Nassau Stakes) and Library (Qatar Lillie Langtry Stakes).

He has been happy with Never Ending Story since Newmarket and said: "We felt dropping back to a mile that we might have made too much use of her, which did not suit. The Nassau has been the plan for a while and we decided to take in the Newmarket race in between. Blue Rose Cen and Nashwa look two very good fillies and it should be a top renewal of the race.”

It remains to be seen if Library will take her chance in the Lillie Langtry with the master of Ballydoyle waiting to see how she comes out of the Irish Oaks.

"She ran a big race at the Curragh over a mile and a half and we felt she was going to run a big race the time before over a mile and six at Leopardstown but she just ran into traffic,” he said.

Alfred Munnings (Qatar Lennox Stakes) is also in the squad at this stage but O'Brien revealed that his participation may depend upon whether a possible sale to Hong Kong goes through.

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