My Stable Eyecatchers: Horses to follow after Glorious Goodwood 2019

Goodwood is one of the more idiosyncratic racecourses in the UK and as such can often feature hard-luck stories with horses unable to quite show their full potential due to either not handling the undulations, or simply being denied a clear run.

There were seven races on each of the five days at the Qatar Goodwood Festival last week and here Matt Brocklebank identifies 10 of the beaten runners who it could pay to keep on side for the remainder of the season.

• Click on the horse's name for their full profile
• Click on the race title for the full result and free video replay

Johnny Drama – 6th in Unibet Handicap, Tuesday July 30

Race one of the entire week was a fairly eventful one and all credit to Danny Tudhope for finding a way up the inside rail to eventually win quite snugly. Johnny Drama is the one I want to take from it going forward, though. He'd done his winning from the front in Ireland and that was presumably the plan here from stall one under Silvestre De Sousa. It went out of the window immediately with a sluggish start and he was playing catch-up from that point. The King Power-owned four-year-old did extremely well to end up so close having had to switch to the wide outside up the straight and, not long with the Andrew Balding team, he's sure to be winning again before long.

Positive – 2nd in Qatar Vintage Stakes, Tuesday July 30

It was a decent week for Clive Cox with his two-year-olds as Golden Horde won the Richmond on the Thursday but he may have taken even more encouragement from the run of Positive in the Vintage. Thrown into the deep end after a taking debut success at Salisbury, he effectively split the Chesham Stakes form, finishing five lengths behind Pinatubo and another five ahead of Lope Y Fernandez. It was a run of huge potential and, given his size and scope, he's one to look forward to next year as well as for the rest of the current campaign.

Impressor - 4th in European Breeders Fund EBF Maiden Stakes, Tuesday July 30

Marcus Tregoning's Impressor was quite badly hampered in the maiden on Tuesday and it was to his credit that he dusted himself down and continued to make some good headway. He was hardly flying home at the finish but Martin Dwyer seemed keen to look after him once the interference had occurred and, having ended up fourth to the well-regarded Cobra Eye, the son of Footstepsinthesand looks to have a future.

True Destiny – 3rd in Unibet Goodwood Handicap, Wednesday July 31

True Destiny has 'Cesarewitch' written all over him and connections can head to Newmarket with high hopes following this fine effort in third to Timoshenko, who looks bound for the same race later in the season. Roger Charlton's horse was held up in a bid to get the new two and a half mile trip but he saw it out really well after travelling a shade more keenly than David Egan would have liked. He's going to be nudged up the weights a bit for this but looks on a steep upward curve and his proven ability to handle a softer surface could give him an extra edge heading into the autumn.

Whitefountainfairy – 6th in New & Lingwood Handicap, Wednesday July 31

Another in the blue and white of King Power for Andrew Balding and another unlucky not to finish a lot closer. He'd come down 12lb in the weights since the start of last season and looked interesting on his first run since May 4. There was market support for him too and he ran a massive race having been all dressed up behind a wall of horses a couple of furlongs from the finish. De Sousa opted for the inside route but he was blocked a couple of times and passed the post with loads in hand without the jockey resorting to the stick. He'd be the obvious one to take from the meeting and shouldn't be hit by the handicapper at all.

Picture Frame – 7th in Telegraph Nursery Handicap, Thursday August 1

There are plenty of nice nurseries coming up towards the end of the summer in the back-end of the season so look out for Picture Frame's next entry. She was always likely to be up against it from stall 16 in Thursday's Telegraph Nursery but wasn't on the right part of the track when the race developed and she wasn't helped by having to come around weakening rivals inside the final furlong. She was never nearer than at the line and it was a performance which marked her down as a filly with no shortage of latent ability. If she's eased in the weights (ran off 84) she'll look a great bet next time out.

Craylands – 2nd in Markel Insurance British EBF Maiden Fillies’ Stakes, Thursday August 1

Sometimes the best horses finishes second at Goodwood and that looked to be the case in Thursday's seven-furlong maiden, with Craylands having to settle for the silver medal for the second time in her career. Michael Bell's daughter of Golden Horn was too keen on the outside of the field with no cover early on but she moved through the mid-part of the race like a very nice prospect and only narrowly failed to reel in Vividly, who had enjoyed a relatively easy lead after her superb start from stall 16. They're both pretty smart by the looks of things but I'd want to be with Craylands if the rematch ever materialises.

Baltic Baron – 5th in Unibet Golden Mile Handicap, Friday August

The first six home from the Golden Mile all deserve a mention with Beat Le Bon now bound for Group company after a really impressive display and Vale Of Kent almost pulling off the impossible having been mad keen out in front from stall 17. Escobar and Seniority didn't enjoy brilliant trips when it hotted up and the latter had clearly been primed for this race again, while his strapping stablemate Mojito - the eventual sixth - isn't one to give up on from his revised rated in the low 100s. However, it's fifth home Baltic Baron who makes the cut as he's the one with real scope to improve past his current mark. He's only had five starts since joining David O'Meara from France and he didn't get a fair crack of the whip here as he had to circumnavigate the weakening Zhui Feng as the winner burst to the front. It wouldn't be surprising to see him make his mark in pattern company at some stage in the future.

Harrovian – 3rd in TDN Australia Handicap, Friday August 2

This 0-90 handicap over a mile and three furlongs has been won by the likes of (dual Group One winner) Poet's Word in the past and this year's edition looks above average. Third home Harrovian won't always bump into horses quite as well treated as Aktau and Sapa Inca and this has to go down as a quality effort under top weight. The cheekpieces worn for the first time looked to help him move through the race smoothly and being out of a Sadler's Wells mare, there's a strong chance he'll step up against when faced with an even greater test of stamina. He's just the type to win a big pot for John Gosden before the season's end with the November Handicap a possible long-term target if he can win somewhere en route to Doncaster as he'll need to go up in the weights to make the cut for that.

Gulliver – 6th in Unibet Stewards’ Cup, Saturday August 3

Khaadem's handicap days appear to be over and while Open Wide acquitted himself well in dashing home for second in the Stewards' Cup, the winner was in a different league. As for sprint handicaps later this year, Gulliver could be one to bag a big one. He was really poor on soft going at York a week before this Goodwood effort so a bad-ground Ayr Gold Cup might not be his thing, but we've got races like the Great St Wilfrid at Ripon before then (August 17) and his trainer David O'Meara has done well in that particular contest. Gulliver was rated as high as 107 in his younger days for Hugo Palmer and while he's evidently still a bit quirky, his current trainer can be trusted to place him to good effect in the coming weeks following this running-on fifth under a hands-and-heels Gerald Mosse ride.

Related horse racing links

• Sky Bet's racing odds
• Free horse racing betting tips
• All today's racecards
• Today's fast results
• Today's full results
• Non-runners
• Today's Goings
• Today's Naps Table