Goodwood Saturday: What the trainers say

By Sporting Life

Horse Racing

Fri August 04, 2023 · 2y ago

Check out the view from connections ahead of Saturday's big-race action at Goodwood.

2.40, Newmarket British EBF 40th Anniversary Chalice Stakes

Donnacha O’Brien - Amusement: “She is the highest rated filly in the race and it looks like she has a big chance. She has run consistently well all season. It is her first time travelling outside of Ireland and you are never sure how they will handle the travelling. Her last run is strong form as the two fillies that finished in front of her are Group One fillies. She had a lot of allowances the last day and doesn’t have quite as many here, but we are hopeful of a good run. I had a few rides at the July Course as a jockey, but this is my first runner as a trainer. It would be nice to have a winner at the July Course but more so for the filly so that she then becomes a stakes race winner.

“She has only won the one handicap and we probably could have won a few more handicaps with her but we wanted to step her up into stakes class and make her a black-type filly. When you do that it is obviously harder to win races and we have probably thrown her in at the deep end a few times but she seems to keep on improving in each of her races. She is a well-bred filly and has been placed in Group races so the next thing after that is to try and make her a stakes race winner. I looked through the programme book and she had plenty of options and I entered her up in plenty of places where she had a chance of winning. When the entries came out this didn’t look like the strongest Listed race so we decided to come here.

“She is by Galileo and she physically looks like a staying filly. Having run her over a mile and six furlongs it looks like she gets that trip well. A mile and a half would be towards the lower end of her scale in terms of trip as she will probably stay two miles in time. However, Newmarket is a big galloping track and the mile and a half there is quite stiff.”

3.00 Qatar Lillie Langtry Stakes

Thady Gosden - Free Wind: “She won the Middleton over a trip below her optimum on her first run of the year and then she found the ground a little too fast for her by the Saturday of Ascot. Obviously we’ve had rain at Goodwood this week and there’s more forecast. Hopefully it doesn’t get too deep, but she seems to be in good form. She has course form and we’re looking forward to running her.”

Juddmonte’s racing manager Barry Mahon - Time Lock: “She’s in good form and we think a mile and six will bring out a bit more improvement in her. It’s similar opposition to what she’s met so far, apart from Free Wind. I think we’ve got her wrong ground-wise. Last year one of her most impressive performances was on quick ground at Newmarket and she looked to skip off it, but Ryan (Moore) felt she really didn’t like it at Haydock. Looking at her we always thought she wanted soft ground, but that performance at Newmarket had us thinking we were wrong. Over a mile and six with a bit of cut in the ground, I’m not saying she’ll win, but I think she’ll be competitive.”

Tom Ward - Luisa Casati: “She’s in good shape and I thought she ran well the other day at Haydock, although she got back in a slowly-run race on slightly quicker ground than ideal. A step up in trip and slower ground should really suit her, so she’s going there with a nice chance on Saturday I hope. She likes the track, it’s not a big field and Richard (Kingscote) knows her well, so fingers crossed.”

3.35 Coral Stewards' Cup

Charlie Hills - Orazio & Tanmawwy: “Orazio will like the ground, which was too firm at Ascot. He’s nicely drawn and though a short-priced favourite, the trip and ground should be perfect for him. Tanmawwy won nicely at Windsor and will like the ground. I think he’s entitled to go well and is no slouch. You can’t rule him out.”

Peter Charalambous - Apollo One: “He ran well at Ascot, but probably just did a bit too much in front and could have done with a little bit of a lead, but he ran a great race. The ground is the only slight concern. I wouldn’t put anyone off having a bet and I wouldn’t tell anyone to have a bet!”

Ruth Carr - Badri: “It is one of those lottery races, unless you happen to have a Group horse lurking there – which obviously we don’t! You never know. He’s in good form and has held his form well. Hopefully the ground will dry out a bit. It had dried out at Ascot from what it was given as (good to soft). That six furlongs should suit and we go there on the back of a good run. We’d be hopeful that he could sneak a bit of prize money. I don’t think going up in trip will be a problem. There’s a lot of downhill and we won over a stiff six at Newcastle, albeit off a lower mark. He’s been consistent – the sort of horse you dream about owning and training, and even better he’s taking us to the bigger meetings. At the beginning of this year we thought we had an all-weather horse, and we wouldn’t be thinking he’d be a Stewards’ Cup horse.”

John Quinn - Mr Wagyu: “He’s had three very good runs and ran very well in the Wokingham, where he had a hard race. I ran him back too quick (at Thirsk) – it was my fault. He won the Stewards’ Cup consolation race a couple of years ago here on soft ground, so soft ground won’t bother him. He’s pretty consistent and he bolted up off 91 and he is 95 on Saturday – he has a squeak.”

Ed Walker - Came From The Dark: "He’ll love the ground. Now he is getting a bit older, he needs that step back up to six. I’m excited. He is a horse who has plenty of problems and to be honest, he is a horse who has not got many runs left in him. But if he can recapture some of his earlier form this year, I reckon he will go close, because he has been tumbling down the weights. I think he’ll run a big race, I really do.”

Steve Brown, assistant trainer - Makanah: "He ran really well last year and with the benefit of hindsight Paul (Mulrennan) might have done one or two things differently, as we were prominent throughout. We just got caught close home. Soft ground should be fine, he’s won on soft ground. My main concern it looks like being a real ‘draw’ race, with a bias up the stands' side. He is in really good form and we’ve had this in mind since Newcastle. He’s been trained for the day. We hope he runs well. We were really proud of him last year and off a lower mark, you’d like to think he’d be a little bit closer this year on ground he doesn’t mind.”

Safer gambling

We are committed in our support of safer gambling. Recommended bets are advised to over-18s and we strongly encourage readers to wager only what they can afford to lose.

If you are concerned about your gambling, please call the National Gambling Helpline / GamCare on 0808 8020 133.

Further support and information can be found at begambleaware.org and gamblingtherapy.org

Like what you've read?