Sussex Stakes Runners: Top class milers to lock horns at Glorious Goodwood
We are less than a month away from Glorious Goodwood 2023 and one of the highlights of that Flat extravaganza is the Group 1 Sussex Stakes, as the premier milers from the three-year-old division take on some of the elite eight-furlong older horses in what is one of the most hotly-anticipated races of the season. We take a look at the possible Sussex Stakes Runners here and pick out those that feature prominently in the betting...
Aidan O'Brien saddled such greats as Giant's Causeway and Rock Of Gibraltar to Sussex Stakes glory and the Ballydoyle maestro will look to claim more success in the race in 2023 and his team is likely to be spearheaded by the top-class three-year-old Paddington, who is a prominent figure towards the head of the betting. A fine winner of the Irish 2000 Guineas a few weeks ago, the Siyouni colt then followed up with a sparkling victory over English 2000 Guineas hero Chaldean in the St James's Palace Stakes at Royal Ascot and that pair could do battle again. Paddington is set to line up in the Coral-Eclipse Stakes at Sandown this weekend, so it will be interesting to see how he performs over that slightly longer trip, but he's shown to be a real crack miler and has to be a major player for this valuable event.
John Gosden has won the Sussex Stakes in recent times with the likes of Kingman and Too Darn Hot and now aided by his son Thady he will look to conquer the prize once again on the Sussex Downs and Inspiral could be his main shot fired. Currently around a 4/1 second favourite, at the time of writing, Inspiral will be eager to bounce back from defeat to Triple Time in the Queen Anne Stakes at Royal Ascot and that pair could do battle once again here. A shock 33/1 winner of the Queen Anne, Triple Time showed a real ability to maintain the pace on the front end and Kevin Ryan's charge will be looking to frank the form with Inspiral here and is a fascinating entry as well. Last year's Coronation Stakes winner Inspiral is a real top notch miler on her day and the daughter of Frankel will be looking to emulate her father, who downed Canford Cliffs in an iconic renewal of this race back in 2011 and then he retained the title in 2012.
A fine winner of the Lockinge Stakes at Newbury at the start of the season, Charlie Appleby's Modern Games was well fancied to go close in the Queen Anne Stakes at the Royal meeting, but with the Godolphin team appearing to misfire throughout the five-day festival, the four-year-old could only finish fourth behind the aforementioned pairing of Triple Time and Inspiral. Edged out by Baaeed in this race 12 months ago, Modern Games will be hoping for more success in the 2023 renewal and having shown he can act with the track at Goodwood then he has to be respected and adds more depth to the race.
Fourth in last season's St James's Palace Stakes, the William Haggas-trained Maljoom has not been seen on the track since, but could return in this event and is available at single figured odds. A real classy performer, it will be a tough ask to deliver the goods against race-fit rivals here, but he has shown he can produce Group-winning displays, so adds yet more intrigue to the event.
The runners will become known in the lead-up to the event, but there will be a whole number of top notch milers ready to head to Glorious Goodwood and it's set to be a real classic renewal as the winner becomes crowned one of the best milers in the entire world!
