Baaeed looks like cinch in Sussex

Baaeed, rated the best horse on the planet in the latest Longines World’s Best Racehorse Rankings, is an odds-on favorite to run his career unbeaten mark to nine in the Group 1 Sussex Stakes on Wednesday at Goodwood Racecourse in England.

Rated 128 in the latest international ratings, two points higher than American star Flightline and Australian sprinter Nature Strip, Baaeed would have to take a serious step backward to lose the Sussex, one of Europe’s premier races over one mile.

Top 3-year-old miler Coroebus was supposed to provide the main competition, but Coroebus was withdrawn from Sussex consideration Monday with an abscessed pastern, leaving Baaeed with six apparently overmatched rivals.

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How overmatched? As of Monday, Baaeed was priced at about 1-5 with English bookmakers, an extremely short price on the antepost betting market. But that’s for good reason – the 4-year-old colt has been a force of nature.

Baaeed didn’t start at age 2 and went 6 for 6 last year at age 3, winning his Group 1 debut in the Prix du Moulin de Longchamp in September before defeating top European miler Palace Pier in the Group 1 Queen Elizabeth II Stakes in October at Ascot.

Trained by William Haggas for Shadwell Estate Ltd., Baaeed has come back with more of the same in two 2022 starts, easy wins in the Group 1 J.T. Lockinge at Newbury and in the Group 1 Queen Anne at Royal Ascot. By Sea The Stars out of Aghareed, by Kingmambo, Baaeed has become absolutely push-button in his races, rating kindly and consistently displaying an electric turn of foot. The Goodwood course is irregular and can be tricky, but Baaeed mastered it last summer winning the Group 3 Thoroughbred Stakes, also over one mile, by more than six lengths. Jim Crowley will have usual seat on Baaeed, whose connections plan to stretch him to 1 1/4 miles following the Sussex.

The Sussex marks the first real chance for top 3-year-old milers to tackle their elders, but with Coroebus out of the picture, two lesser horses, Modern Games and Angel Bleu, carry the sophomore banner. Each gets eight pounds from the older male runners like Baaeed, but that is almost certainly not an equalizer. Modern Games, winner of the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf last fall, won the French 2000 Guineas to start his 3-year-old campaign but exits a subpar fifth-place finish in the seven-furlong Prix Jean Prat on July 10. Angel Bleu’s best races have come over much softer going than he’s going to encounter Wednesday.

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Alcohol Free, a 4-year-old filly who gets three pounds from Baaeed, is not only the second choice, but also the defending Sussex champion. Coming off a win in the six-furlong July Cup at Newmarket, Alcohol Free led a 3-year-old sweep of the top three Sussex placings a year ago – but a year ago, there was nothing like Baaeed in the Sussex.

Post time for the Sussex, one of three stakes races on this Glorious Goodwood card, is 10:35 a.m. Eastern.