Qatar Goodwood Festival and more paddock notes from Timeform's David Cleary
It never rains but it pours. My second-best shoes have barely recovered from the second day of Newmarket's July Festival; Super Sprint day at Newbury was thoroughly inclement, a relief that I hadn't paid to wait in the rain for Tom Jones; and although it hardly rained at all during racing at Newmarket last Saturday, ground that had been Good to Firm on Friday evening was rendered Soft by a thorough soaking in the morning. Cue non-runners a plenty.
At least we got through the card, unlike Goodwood. The Festival there can seldom have felt less glorious. On all five days the ground was softer than Good, with Timeform recording Heavy on two days. Summer Flat racing is not meant to be like this! All of which is offered as a note of caution when assessing some of the form in recent weeks.
At first glance, one of the disappointments of the week at Goodwood was Nostrum, who tackled the Group 3 Thoroughbred Stakes on Friday, rather than take on Paddington and company in the Sussex Stakes. Nostrum had been so good in the Henry Cecil at Newmarket and looked to be in control for most of the way on Friday, but the finish was lacking.
Give his conqueror Epictetus quite a bit of credit – he's always been well regarded, is almost as good looking as Nostrum and connections finally seem to have landed on his optimum conditions. However, Nostrum, as he had in the Dewhurst last autumn, didn't fully deliver. Perhaps that is harsh; perhaps the ground, softer than he'd faced previously, was an issue. He is after all, still at an early stage of his career, with a masterful trainer, none better at drawing out over time a horse's ability.
On balance, Nostrum deserves another chance.
The year before, Nostrum had made his debut in a Sandown maiden that also has Kameko on the recent roll of honour. And though there have been plenty more valuable maidens and novices that I've seen in recent weeks, the field for the latest running of that race was the best overall on looks in that time.
Arabian Crown, with experience under his belt, scored kept up to his work. He's already crying out for a mile and seems sure to develop into a useful performer at that trip and beyond. It wouldn't be a surprise if he ended up in something like the Royal Lodge into the autumn.
There were six newcomers in the field against Arabian Crown, and I would be positive about nearly all of them. Kings Valley fared best on the day, supported in the market and the most clued up, before running out of puff late on. Less street-wise and drifters in the betting were Reliant, Mishriff's half-brother by Frankel, and the Ralph Beckett pair Atlantic Convoy and City Burglar. All three were green. Reliant – a sturdy, well-made sort, definitely no Robin – in particular shaped with promise under a very sympathetic ride.
By contrast, the fields for the maiden at Goodwood won narrowly by Mansa Musa and the Crocker Bulteel on King George day at Ascot were rather underwhelming. The pair I liked most in the former were the Stuart Williams-trained Cloud King and Dark Dreamer. However, neither had much idea and are likely to be longer-term projects.
I also quite liked Robbo, though he was not fully fit and was green going to post – no surprise that he couldn't land a blow.
He'll be doing well if he gets close to the record of a previous Robbo, who ran around the turn of the century. Trained by the Reveleys, Mary then Keith, he won on the Flat, over hurdles and fences, at his best as a chaser. None of his 17 victories came in especially valuable events, but he was a runner-up in a Tripleprint Gold Cup, Eider and a Borders National. All told, he ran no fewer than 98 times. Happy days.
I'm not sure the pattern events for two year olds at Goodwood will have a lot of bearing on the top contests in this age group in the autumn. Big Evs showed good battling qualities, despite not really handling the track, in landing the Molecomb. It was frustrating, though, that for the second year running, the staging of the Alice Keppel on the same card meant a runner that might have played a big part in the Molecomb had an opportunity to dodge.
Last year, Trillium and The Platinum Queen were kept apart. This time, although it might not have been so obvious beforehand, Flora of Bermuda showed herself capable of running to a level that would have pushed Big Evs hard. She'd been drawn on the 'wrong' side at Royal Ascot, subsequent events suggesting she ran a fair bit better than the bare form.
The Vintage Stakes went to the Superlative runner-up Haatem, who in the process paid a compliment to City of Troy. However, Haatem's trainer Richard Hannon has a stronger candidate for top honours in his recent impressive Ascot scorer Rosallion. There had been plenty to like about his debut win at Newbury and he stepped up on that form a good deal in landing the Pat Eddery with authority.
Rosallion, a strong colt by Blue Point, tanked along and showed a good turn of foot from off the pace to settle matters. He's likely to stay a mile, but the Champagne Stakes and Dewhurst, kept to seven, is surely the route this autumn.
Earlier on the Ascot card, Sacred Angel made all after a fast start in the Princess Margaret. She doesn't look like a sprinter, though kept to six furlongs so far, and the Prix Morny, her next intended outing, might be more of a speed test than ideal, but she will be worth her place at the top level.
Her trainer Charlie Johnston has found winners a little hard to come by in recent weeks, and I was reminded at Newmarket on Saturday of two commonly stated things about the yard – that its horses don't act on soft ground and that it has a great record with horses that finished last on their previous outing.
The former is a sweeping generalisation built in part on the yard's tendency to run horses when others might withdraw them. The latter we might test with French Invasion, who was beaten all of 94 lengths, last of 11, in the theoretically competitive mile-and-a-half handicap that opened Wednesday's Goodwood card.
The field in this finished strung out like three-mile chasers, something on his scopey physique that French Invasion might make one day. Physique and pedigree both suggest there should be better to come as his stamina is further tested.
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One other well held in a handicap at Goodwood that is worth another chance could well be Millebosc. He was sent off at just 7/2 for the Chesterfield Cup after an encouraging return in the John Smith's Cup, but failed to figure. He's got plenty of quality about him and although a five-year-old, he's not had many chances for his current yard. The ground seems an unlikely reason why he underperformed, given he'd done most of his racing in France on soft, but may have been a factor in a different type of race.
Ten days earlier, his trainer William Haggas had landed the Weatherbys Super Sprint at Newbury with the Queen Mary runner-up Relief Rally. It's not unusual for the majority of the field for this valuable pot to have a passing resemblance to rabbits, and Relief Rally herself isn't the biggest.
One runner that had much more about him than the usual super-sprinter was Payment In Kind, who improved considerably on his debut effort to take third. He looks sure to win races and is a potentially useful performer at six and seven furlongs.
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