HUGHES CHASES A LAST HURRAH
GLORIOUS Goodwood starts tomorrow and no j ockey will be more set on personal glory than threetime Flat champion Richard Hughes, who retires at the end of this week.
Hughes has ridden 54 winners at the meeting, including 30 since 2010, and has been top jockey in four of the last five years.
Top- notch mounts will be thinner on the ground this week for Hughes but he is l ooking forward to riding Richard Hannon-trained Tupi tomorrow in the Lennox Stakes, one of six mounts on the opening day when he will also ride Hannon’s Palawan in the Vintage Stakes.
Rides later in the week could include Tiggy Wiggy in Friday’s King George Stakes and the Queen’s Touchline in the Queen’s Plate Stakes on the same day.
CLASH OF THE WEEK
A PRIZE pot of £1million means we may have more starters than usual but Wednesday’s Group One Sussex Stakes over a mile looks like another ‘Duel on the Downs’.
Aidan O’Brien’s English and Irish 2, 000 Guineas winner Gleneagles, fresh from success in the St James’s Palace Stakes at Royal Ascot, takes on Solow, winner of the Queen Anne Stakes at the Royal meeting for trainer Freddie Head.
With Ryan Moore injured, Joseph O’Brien will be restricting his calorie intake to make the weight and take the mount on Gleneagles, a top-priced evens to beat 11-8 shot Solow, trying to become the first French-trained winner since Bigstone in 1993.
TRIP ADVISOR
TRIP TO PARIS will have to defy his 4lb Group One penalty if he is to become only the third horse in last 20 years to add Thursday’s two-mile Goodwood Cup to his Gold Cup win at Ascot. Double Trigger (1995) and Yeats (2006) also achieved it.
Ed Dunlop, trainer of Trip To Paris, aims to win a race his retired trainer father John won with Lucky Moon ( 1990) and Sergeyevich ( 1987). Opposing will be Northumberland Plate winner Quest For Glory and the Princess Of Wales’s Stakes winner Big Orange.
ARABIAN SIGHTS
THE new Qatari backing f or the meeting has doubled the prizemoney for the week to more than £4.5m and not surprisingly they want to win some of their money back.
Sheik Joaan’s Al Shaqab Racing team look to have the strongest hand with a squad including John Gosden- t r ained July Stakes winner Shalaa i n Thursday’s Richmond Stakes, Hannon’s Royal Ascot third King Of Rooks in Wednesday’s Molecomb Stakes and Royal Ascot winner Osaila in Friday’s Queen’s Plate.
FEEL-GOOD FRANKIE
A GOOD week for his Qatari bosses will i nevitably mean a decent return for Frankie Dettori who, with 58 winners, is t he t op Glorious Goodwood jockey still riding.
Narrowly denied a fifth Group One win of the season on Eagle Top at Ascot on Saturday, the I talian will also be hunting top-level success in Saturday’s Nassau Stakes on Star Of Seville, the French Oaks winner trained by Gosden.
The same day, Dettori chases a first win in the Stewards’ Cup on Charlie Hills- trained Magical Memory, the gelding he won on at the Newmarket July meeting. He has also been booked for Simenon in the Goodwood Cup.
MAKING A MARK
SIXTH SENSE’S win at Ascot on Saturday made it a remarkable 43 successes during July for trainer Mark Johnston and punters know he is invariably the man to follow at a meeting where he has been top trainer eight times this c e ntury. With 63 Glorious Goodwood wins, only Sir Michael Stoute (70) among current trainers has more winners.
Johnston’s entries this week include Queen Alexandra Stakes s corer Oriental Fox in t he Goodwood Cup.