Qatar Goodwood Festival Friday reports and replays: Doyle masterclass in Golden Mile

Channon's Golden goal

Johan (25/1) made a winning return to action on his first start for Jack Channon in the feature handicap, the Coral Golden Mile.

A draw in 18 and the lack of a recent run led to last year's Lincoln winner - when trained by Jack's father, Mick - being ignored in the betting but James Doyle performed wonders to get Johan out of the gates and into a prominent position, travelling in second behind Darkness.

The prominent racing The Gatekeeper (14/1) laid down a strong challenge but try as they might, they couldn't get past.

Stablemate Dutch Decoy (11/1) was third with Darkness (50/1) holding on for fourth. Sonny Liston (20/1) was fifth.

The going was changed after the race to good to soft, soft in places (from soft, good to soft in places).

"It couldn't have been more straightforward to be honest," said Doyle.

"It's unusual for a race like that to go through the race and there not be a lot of obvious pacemakers or genuine leaders. He's a very straightforward horse to ride so we knew once we got that draw that there was only one thing for us to do. With the testing conditions and with the rail being back in the true position, I thought it would be very difficult to take your medicine and ride to come home, especially with the lack of pace.

"He bounced out the gates super quick, he needed to do that, we were able to float over next to Hector Crouch and Darkness and we were able just to control the race. I was a bit of a safety car in second, I let Hector go as slow as he dared but every now and then I could hear them coming. It was quite a fun race to ride and very straightforward, not your typical Goodwood experience!

"I've known this horse for a number of years, I've ridden him when William Haggas had him, and the full team have done a marvellous job."

Channon said: “It’s been a bit of a long road since the Lincoln last year, and we unearthed a little bit of an issue he had in his back sort of midway through last summer. We tried a few different things, but thanks to our brilliant vets at home, Charlie Schreiber in particular, we came up with a solution for it. We got it done in the spring and all summer he has been absolutely starting to just show himself to be the old horse.

“To be able to produce it on the big days, I know I keep saying it, but Alana who rides him every day at home – she’s done an amazing job on him – and all the guys who looked after him through that period where he was injured have done an amazing job. Just to be able to prove to everyone that you can. Dad’s done it for 30 years, and to be able to prove to everyone that you can do it as well, it’s a massive monkey off the back as it were.

He joked: “Dad tells me when I’m wrong all the time, basically!”, before adding: “He’s an integral part. I know I keep saying it, but that was a massive team performance from everyone at West Ilsley. He hasn’t been the easiest to train and to produce him on a day like that was pretty special.”

Epic Dettori

The highly rated Nostrum was denied in the Bonhams Thoroughbred Stakes by Epictetus (6/1).

Ryan Moore set out to make all in the Group 3 aboard the odds-on favourite who didn't do an awful lot wrong but Frankie Dettori was always in his slipstream aboard the eventual winner.

Dettori pulled his charge off the rail to challenge inside the final two furlongs and started to close approaching the final furlong, mastering his rival with half a furlong to run and staying on strongly to win by a length.

Epictetus had been campaigned over 10 furlongs this season, winning the Epsom Derby Trial and taking in the French Derby on his penultimate start, but relished the drop to a mile.

Dettori, who treated the crowd to a flying dismount, said: "We tried three times a mile and a quarter and we always had an excuse, the ground, the competition in the Jockey Club, but maybe George (Strawbridge, owner) was right, he said 'you guys are running the horse too long'.

"So John and Thady (Gosden, trainers) found a race over a mile. Of course, the favourite looked very hard to beat but I had a good passage and he passed the horse and he wasn't stopping so I've got to give him full credit, he showed a good change of gear.

"The first race that springs to my mind is the Celebration Mile here in three weeks and then there are lots of races in the autumn. Pleased that he beat a decent field in style so we can go back and make plans."

James Savage, assistant trainer to Sir Michael Stoute, said of Nostrum: “Ryan thought he had the race in the perfect place four out and picked up the pace to the two pole and thought he race was for us. But he said just the last 100 yards he felt like had a puncture, he didn’t get home.

“We’ve always thought he’d handle ease in the ground but I think maybe that dead ground today has just caught him out in the closing stages. He’s always hit the line before and he didn’t today so we’ll give him a check-over and decide what’s next.

“We’ll just have to regroup. He’s a very, very good horse, we’re not going to lose any faith in him. We did the right thing in not going to the Sussex or straight to France and this is another experience for him and it will bring him on further.

“He’s been away, he’s been away overnight and run on softer ground than is ideal and it will bring him on. I’m sure he’s a very good horse this year but he will even better next season.”

Success on a plate for Hamish

Odds of 5/6 and official ratings suggested it would be plain sailing for Hamish in the l'Ormarins King's Plate Glorious Stakes and so it proved.

Held-up with only Teumessias Fox behind him in the early stages, Hamish made his way through the field but when leader Jack Darcy quickened and Candleford went with him, Tom Marquand was having to get serious on their inside and the response was not instantaneous.

There was, however, plenty of racing to be done and Hamish hit his stride passing the furlong pole and powered home to win by four lengths from a gallant Jack Darcy, landing a third Group 3 success of the season.

A tilt at last week's Group 1 King George VI and Queen Elizabeth Stakes had been considered for Hamish whose owner, Brian Haggas, the trainer's father, had been quick to upbraid his son, William, who said: "He's hard to place, and while people said I should have run him in the King George I couldn't do that on drying ground. You can run in a race like this on drying ground, but the King George is a different thing.

"My father quickly pointed out he has only run against one of this year's King George horses, and that was Hukum and he beat him. He was lambasting me for not running.

"I rang my father before the race and said the horse has been an absolute nightmare to saddle. Poor Maureen has been jumped on about eight times and has blood coming out the top of her head because the horse struck her, but she adores him and does everything with him. I can take no credit for this - all the credit and praise should go to her.

"I didn't think this was a strong race for the grade and he was always travelling well. Tom said after the race this was the best the horse has felt this year. He scrambled home a bit at York last time, and while he likes a bit of cut in the ground he likes it wet.

"The Irish St Leger is a possibility, but he wants soft ground. We've been lucky this summer - ha, ha, what summer? - that we've had some soft ground. He's run twice in a fortnight, while last year we couldn't get anything out of him at all."

Hosie's champagne moment

Temporize (6/1 favourite) landed a gamble in the Coral Goodwood Handicap over an extended two and a half miles.

Trained by Syd Hosie and ridden by Luke Morris, Temporize, who was as big as 14/1 when betting opened on Thursday, was always to the fore.

Half a dozen runners broke clear in the straight with former winner Calling The Wind among them and seemingly travelling better than most but the top-weight began to backpedal as Temporize started to pour it on under the familiar Morris drive.

Robert Johnson, under pressure at the top of the hill, made up significant ground but never looked like giving the favourite's supporters the blues.

The remaining places were filled by Tronador and Motazzen with The Grand Visir fifth.

Morris said: "It can be a bit of a rough race where a lot of horses can race freely but he got away from the start smartly and I was always keen to keep it nice and simple and it went very much like clockwork.

"This lad is an ex-Johnston horse and he's just very solid and very honest. This is his third run in just over two weeks so he's obviously very resilient and very tough."

A beaming Hosie added: "I've won a bottle of champagne off Milton Harris. He bet me his horse would finish in front of mine so I shook his hand.

"I've now got a very happy owner (Paul Moore) - this is his first horse with us. I'm setting myself up for a trip I guess. Now we might go for the Cesarewitch, but we would love to go hurdling with him one day."

Rest of the action: Steel Magnolia

Serried Ranks (8/1) led home a one-two for Ralph Beckett in the Ire-Incentive It Pays To Buy Irish Nursery Handicap with 3/1 favourite Starlust second and Dapper Valley a close third.

Owned by HM The King and HM The Queen, Serried Ranks was having his third start but his first since May. A winner on heavy ground on debut, he'd come up short on quick ground next time and proved his appreciation for cut in the ground with a convincing display.

Winning rider Rossa Ryan said: "He had to be tough from the furlong home because I was on my own. I actually couldn't go with them early doors because he was very green still, he's still learning. Relished conditions, relished them when he won at Nottingham, might have been a bit quick for him the last day."

"I'd imagine he's only starting to learn what the whole game is about. I would imagine, going into the autumn and softer ground, I'd say he'd start coming into himself and getting progressively quicker as the year goes on and he's a lovely mind to go with it."

Beckett doubled up in the closing Coral Handicap when Balance Play (7/2 joint-favourite) quickened smartly for Hector Crouch to win the race in a matter of strides. True Legend finished well from further back to snatch second from Dancing In Paris.

"Very pleased, it's been a good day," said Beckett for whom it was a third winner of the Festival.

"Very immature throughout most of his life, he learnt a lot at Epsom on Derby Day and then Chester it wasn't the plan to make the running. Today, a little bit timid in amongst horses, he's still quite green. We learned a lot today and we'll go a mile and a half now, he might get a bit further.

"I think there's plenty of mileage in him because he was a rig and that hampered progress at two and it's all coming right for him now."

Before racing Annabelle Hadden-Wight produced a composed performance to land the Markel Magnolia Cup aboard Scott Dixon’s Fosroc.

The 22-year-old, who is a work rider and racing secretary to trainer Jack Jones, partnered the seven-year-old gelding known under rules as Ebury to a narrow success from closing rival Eliza McCalmont.

“It has not really sunk in, it was so much fun, I want to do it all over again! I have only ridden the horse once and I didn’t know what to expect,” said Hadden-Wight. "My legs were good, but I did jump off and my knees buckled. I am pretty tired now!"

The victory had a special poignancy for Hadden-Wight, who at one point thought she would never walk again, let alone ride, after falling ill with meningitis.

“Four years ago I was in the Philippines and I got really ill on my 18th birthday on just the second day we were there,” she explained. I ended up spending months and months out there – I had meningitis with lots of complications and my legs weren’t working, I was in a wheelchair. They said I may never walk or ride again.

“After making a full recovery, I like to take every opportunity, it really changed my outlook on life. It was for the best, but at the time pretty scary. It is so nice to have my friends and family here, some I have not seen for ages. Mum is here, she is not horsey at all and has found the whole thing terrifying!”

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