Glorious Goodwood continues to deliver the big races throughout the week and there’s plenty to look forward to for the final three days of the festival.
The Nassau Stakes is Thursday’s highlight on Ladies Day, while Battaash looks to make it three wins on the spin in the King George Stakes on Friday.
The festival is rounded off with the Stewards Cup on Saturday, which is as open as always,with the sprinters thunder down the Goodwood straight.
Our horse racing expert picks out the best bets for each of the feature races.
Thursday – Nassau Stakes
Nine line-up for Thursday’s showpiece and the statistics certainly favour the market leader Hermosa.
Of the last 12 Nassau Stakes, 11 of the winners were aged three of four, with Midday back in 2011 the only blot on the record book.
Half of the last 12 winners have also been favourites and Hermosa certainly justifies that tag at 13/8.
The 1000 Guineas winner in both England and Ireland didn’t run too badly in the Coronation Stakes at Royal Ascot, but was touched off by French Raider Watch Me.
The step up to 1m2f is likely to suit and trainer Aidan O’Brien has a good record in this race having won it in 2016 and 2017 with Minding and Winter respectively.
Her main rival comes in the form of John Gosden’s Medaayih, and though she won last time out at Saint-Cloud she was sent off favourite for the Oaks at Epsom, where she failed to deliver and I expect her to fall short once again.
Friday – King George Stakes
Following the news of Blue Point’s retirement, Battaash is the clear favourite in a bid to make it a hat-trick of King George wins.
The Charlie Hills sprinter joined the list of dual winners in 2018 after holding off veteran Take Cover.
He was the closest to Blue Point in King’s Stand Stakes at Royal Ascot and despite the short price of 1/3 with Grosvenorsport.com I cannot see anything else touching this classy horse.
Sergei Prokofiev is one of three four-year-olds in the race, and at 12/1 represents good each way value.
Saturday – Stewards’ Cup
The Stewards’ Cup is always one of the most open races of the festival and presents a tough one for punters, but also gives you some great value.
The favourite Flavius Titus has leading claims having won two of his three starts, with a third-place finish sandwiched in between the two wins at Newmarket.
Fourteen of the last 20 winners have been either four or five-years-old and 15 of those have gone off at odds of 14/1 or less.
Roger Varian’s charge certainly represents value and at 11/1 it is definitely worth an each way bet on the current favourite.
However, Gulliver is my main each-way fancy at 16/1, especially after an impressive win at York at the end of June.
He is likely to face a number of those rivals again here and at the prices, don’t be surprised if he runs a big race.
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