“It’s his first win since the Craven at the start of last season, but he has been running well in defeat and we have not had him in better nick for a long while, so we went to Goodwood full of hope”.
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“He gets a mile and Hughesie (Richard Hughes) said he’d often thought he’d get a little bit further”.
“He is unbelievable. He’s won four Group Ones this year – it’s mad”, Guyon said.
Only two of the 20 runners in the Victoria Racing Club Goodwood Stakes have proven form over the marathon trip – last year’s victor Teak, and Taws who finished half a length in front of him in the Queen Alexandra at Royal Ascot. But not yet enough to end any arguments about the identity of the season’s best miler, which is still a question for another day.
“And this year it’s very big”.
Tazffin is a filly who will do better in the future, but today trainer Roger Varian was pleased to get a handicap victory from her. The daughter of Iffraaj, the 7/2 favourite, ran out a determined half-length victor of the EBF Stallions Veuve Clicquot Fillies’ Handicap as 12/1 shot Nancy From Nairobi pushed her all the way. He sat in second on Solow and kept the leader on a tight leash, never letting him build his advantage and he was always ready to kick when he did.
With the defection of leading three-year-old Gleneagles taking some of the gloss off the Group One feature, Freddy Head’s French challenger was the 2-5 favourite to add to his previous top-level triumphs this year in the Dubai Turf, Prix d’Ispahan and Queen Anne Stakes.
It was a smooth, efficient performance ahead of the decisive championship events of autumn but whether Solow will ever walk into a set of starting stalls alongside Gleneagles must now be the subject of considerable doubt. He’s chosen the right day to do it, with a lot of prize-money on offer. When you have a top-class horse, that is what you should do. Maxime said that he was always confident that he was going to win but I wasn’t certain. The rest developed into a bit of a sprint.
“If there is some give in the ground, it will be a big help for him as he has won on heavy”.
“The straight is on the slow side of good and Gleneagles is a fast ground horse”.
Conditions had dried up prior to racing on Wednesday, with the going officially described as good, but O’Brien insisted he was happy with the decision not run his star three-year-old.
“I thought with a furlong and a half to go he might blow up and that Notarised might get there but luckily when they all came he responded”.
Dutch Connection will be unfazed at returning to seven furlongs for this Group Two and hails from an age group that has thrived in the Lennox Stakes in recent times.
Frankie Dettori came with a strong challenge in the final furlong aboard King Of Rooks, an even-money chance, but he was in the middle of the track while Kachy and Richard Kingscote could run against the stands’ rail and Tom Dascombe’s runner stayed on well to win by three-quarters of a length.
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“I do think, going to Goodwood this year, there will be extra pressure on me”, he says. I remember Venture, he was a very good horse. He needed to get a win under his belt and get his confidence back, and now we can move to the next level.
