Stradivarius - one of the star names at Glorious Goodwood

Stradivarius wins the Goodwood Cup

Thady Gosden on Glorious Goodwood highlights

By Graham Clark

Horse Racing

Sun July 27, 2025 · 5M ago

Recalling memories of the Qatar Goodwood Festival is anything but a chore when your father happens to be one of the all-time training greats.

That is the fortunate position Thady Gosden finds himself in having grown up watching his dad John conqueror all before him at the idyllic Sussex venue. However, since joining his father on the licence in 2021, Thady has already tasted Group One glory at the track thanks to Nashwa in the 2022 Nassau Stakes.

But before enjoying that special moment with the daughter of Frankel the 30-year-old reflects both fondly, and proudly, of the numerous top-level triumphs secured by his dad at a track which has proven a happy hunting ground.

Thady said: “It is a pretty important meeting in the height of the English summer and it has been a wonderful festival to go to and have runners at. We have been fortunate enough to have some very good horses run there over the years.

"Eleven years ago Kingman won a very hot Sussex Stakes in excellent fashion. He really showed the natural speed he had there.

“Lately, Stradivarius won four Goodwood Cups, which is a unique achievement, but he was a fantastic horse and those victories live long in the memory.

“The Fugue was a champion filly, who won the 2012 Nassau in great style and then you also have Winsili, who won it for Juddmonte, just a year later.

“If you have live chances in the main races down there they can be career making races for those horses.”

Kingman winning the Sussex Stakes at Glorious Goodwood

The squad being sent down to this year’s meeting by the Gosdens is, as you would expect, a power packed one headed up by this year’s Tattersalls Irish 2000 Guineas hero and St James’s Palace Stakes winner Field Of Gold in Wednesday’s Visit Qatar Stakes.

Gosden added: “He has run well all year and he put up very impressive performances both at the Curragh and Ascot. As we know Goodwood is a unique track that presents a different test to his last two starts, which is another question mark there.

“He has a great deal of natural speed and tactically speed and an exceptional turn off foot so he is a versatile horse. He has come out of Ascot in great form. He is very business-like at home and he goes about his work well. We couldn’t be any happier with him going into the race.

“Physically he is a different type to his father, but you would like to think he will put in a good performance.”

Although Field Of Gold is a general 2/5 chance to bag a third Group One of the campaign Gosden admits he will have to be at the top of his game taking on his elders for the first time, which includes triple Group One winner Rosallion.

He added: “The top end of the older mile division is very strong this year and it has plenty of depth to it. Taking on those older horses is going to be a tough ask.

“The weight-for-age allowance concession he receives is obviously a help, but these are very experienced and tough older Group One horses he is taking on.

“Not to mention you have another Classic-winning three-year-old in Henri Matisse in there as well. It is one of the deepest Sussex Stakes in quite a while."

Field Of Gold wins the St James's Palace in brilliant fashion

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Before Field Of Gold is unleashed the father-and-son duo could already have a Group One in the bag with French Master, Military Academy and Sweet William all set to take their chance in the Al Shaqab Goodwood Cup.

Thady said: “We have three runners in the Goodwood Cup which is a good hand. They all have very different profiles and they are at different stages of their career and this race will present different challenges to them all.

”French Master enters this after winning the Copper Horse Stakes at Royal Ascot, but stepping out of handicap company into Group One company is always a big question.

“However, he has come out of the race at Ascot, which he won in good style, in great order. It was hard to say he was going to end up in a race like this when he won at Goodwood earlier in the season.

“He is a different type to Sweet William, but we thought he was a horse that would continue to improve and we will know a lot more after Tuesday. Sweet William is already proven in the staying division and he is a talented gelding and he also goes there in good order.

"He is a very gifted and talented horse that is a beautiful home bred of Philippa Cooper’s and it would be fantastic for him to win at the top level. The two and a half miles at Ascot in the Gold Cup, in the temperature which it was there this year, stretched him, but he has come out of the race in top shape and Rab (Havlin) looked after him."

As for the Gosdens other entry in the race, Military Academy, he has somewhat slipped under the radar, but is a horse, according to his connections, that should not be disregarded.

Thady added: “Military Academy hasn’t run since the Tapster at Goodwood where he ran a good race to be second over the mile and a half to Hamish. He is a horse that enjoys getting his toe in, but they have had a bit of rain down there.

“Stepping up to two miles is a question mark, but he is a very laid back horse that relaxes well in his races. He is by a Galileo mare (Sovereign Parade) so you would like to think the step up in trip will play to his strengths.

“Stepping him up in trip has always been our plan and it was just a case of deciding where the right place to do it was going to be.”

When it comes to equine characters at Clarehaven Stables there is little doubt that Audience would be near the head of that list.

And the gelded son of Iffraaj will be back to defend his crown in the HKJC World Pool Lennox Stakes, where he will be joined in the Group Two by stablemate Spy Chief.

Thady said: “Audience has an abundance of talent, but things needs to go right for him and hopefully that will be the case here, but has won the race before. Rab knows him like the back of his hand, and he gets on very well with him, and they have had some good successes together.

Audience is in full control of the Lennox Stakes

“He is a horse that takes some knowing, but he is a wonderful horse when everything comes together. He has been training well into the race and he did a nice piece of work on Wednesday and he appears to be in top order within himself.

“The plan is to go to the Lennox Stakes with Spy Chief and he ran a solid race in the July Cup. He has gone the right way in every start this year and he deserves to take his chance here.

“The July Cup looked an open race and he is a horse that has a lot of speed about him and the race has historically been a race where horses dropping back in trip have done well in so we thought as a three-year-old gelding he deserved to take his chance and he was by no means disgraced in defeat.”

While the chances of the Gosdens Group race contenders are there for all to see, what is more tricky to find is which of the numerous handicap entrants could potentially be better than that grade.

And although keeping his cards relatively close to his chest, Gosden put forward one colt in particular that should be considered in whichever race he contests at the five-day meeting.

He added: “Wicked is a very well-bred horse owned by Wathnan Racing. He won well on his last start at Sandown Park, but he didn’t quite go to Ascot. He has a few options, but he goes there in good form."

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