Tuesday, July 30, 2019

Goodwood Sussex Stakes 2019 - A Darn Hot contest

John Gosden and Franco Dettori are having a sizzling hot summer with their superstars and the trend looks set to continue when Too Darn Hot lines up for the Sussex Stakes at Goodwood. The juvenile champion seems to be back to his best after having been mismanaged in the early part of the season. The easy course mile looks very well within his compass and looks good value for the win at odds against.

The rest of the field are no slouch, with the likes of Phoenix of Spain, Lord Glitters and Circus Maximus but if the son of Dubawi has maintained the form of his Jean Prat win a few weeks ago, he should have fear of no one.

Win: Too Darn Hot
Value Place: Lord Glitters


Monday, July 29, 2019

Goodwood Cup Stakes - Who can stop Stradivarius ?


Stradivarius is the turf king stayer and is the overwhelming favourite to repeat in the Group 1 Qatar Goodwood Cup. The son of Sea the Stars is unbeaten in his past 7 outings, a winning run that has spanned the last 18 months! This handsome colt relishes top of the ground to unwind his powerful finishing kick and it is quite a worry from connections that the probable rain forecast could mix the cards come race time.

The main danger to Stradivarius appears to be Cross Counter, the Melbourne Cup winner. Beaten convincingly albeit not too far off in the Gold Cup, the son of Teofilo will certainly prefer the shorter 2 mile distance. Being the course holder of the mile and half distance, he will certainly not find the tricky Goodwood course a problem, an issue that some others in the field might find hard to tackle. This race represents Cross Counter's best shot of gunning down Stradivarius.

Out of the above two, Dee Ex Bee represents the best form and could try to take the spoils going tactically up front.

Hard to go against Stradivarius here even at odds against. An exacta with Cross Counter, an a trifecta with Dee Ex Bee look to be the best value plays.

Win: Stradivarius
Place: Cross Counter
Exacta: Stradivarius/Cross Counter
Trifecta: Stradivarius/Cross Counter/Dee Ex Bee