DOUBLE HANDFUL

THE feature race at Goodwood today is the Group Two Celebration Mile Stakes and the obvious selection has to be BENBATL.

Saeed bin Suroor’s stable star is by far the best horse in the field with three Group One victories to his name. He’s a celebration mile clear of the other six runners in terms of ratings and his price looks more stand-out than your average scarecrow.

Godolphin’s globetrotting six-year-old pocketed a tasty $1.5million in prize money when coming third in the inaugural $20million Saudi Cup and the standard there is several rungs higher than he faces today.

The most remarkable thing about Benbatl is that he appears extremely generously priced and ‘generous’ is not a word you readily associate with bookmakers.

Benbatl would be a lot shorter in price were it not for three factors – the ground, the time since his last outing and the fact I’m backing him.

It’s been 182 days since that last run but that really shouldn’t be a factor. Benbatl has a proven record of running well fresh, as he proved when winning the Joel Stakes on his reappearance at Newmarket last season.

The real concern is the going. Saeed bin Suroor has said that Benbatl won’t run if the ground is soft.

The forecast for today is dry with a strong headwind so I can see the surface drying out nicely for the international star. Besides, jockey Oisin Murphy has said that the surface doesn’t really matter to him unless it’s really soft.

He’s won on turf, dirt, firm and good ground and he’s proven on a variety of surfaces.

Regal Reality is vying with favouritism with Benbatl but he’d have to improve enormously to finish in front of him. He did win a Group 3 at Salisbury earlier this month and he does get 3lb but that victory was his first in his last eight outings.

If the rain gives Goodwood a wide berth, expect Benbatl to do the same to his rivals.