Mediyaah has formidable team on his side for Nassau Stakes

Trainer John Gosden and jockey Frankie Dettori combined to take down the featured race on the first two days of the Glorious Goodwood festival in England this week and have a chance to run that string to three when Mediyaah starts Thursday in the Group 1 Nassau Stakes.

Dettori and Gosden landed the Group 1 Goodwood Cup on Tuesday with Stradivarius and the Group 1 Sussex Stakes on Wednesday with Too Darn Hot, and while Mediyaah isn’t in the same league as those two horses, she might be good enough to win the Nassau, a fillies-and-mares race contested over just less than 1 ¼ miles.

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Mediyaah, like several in the race, is cutting back in distance from 1 ½-mile starts, having won the Group 2 Prix Malleret in France after finishing seventh of 14 in the Oaks at Epsom on May 31. The 3-year-old daughter of Frankel has won her three starts this year other than the Oaks, where she had at least two spots of noteworthy trouble, and the two-furlong turnback in distance alone shouldn’t get her beat.

Favored in betting on Wednesday was Hermosa, another 3-year-old who, like Mediyaah, gets an eight-pound weight break from the older horses in the race. Trained by Aidan O’Brien, Hermosa was a talented 2-year-old who has moved forward at age 3, winning the English 1000 Guineas by one length and the Irish 1000 Guineas by four lengths before going down to a 1 ¾-length defeat at even-money in the Group 1 Coronation Stakes at Royal Ascot. Hermosa never has raced beyond one mile and will be tested for stamina Thursday.

Channel, who won the French Oaks in her last start, is one of several other entrants with a chance. Also among that group are Maqsad, Rawdaa, and Sun Maiden.

Stradivarius wins third Goodwood Cup

Stradivarius won his eighth race in a row Tuesday while capturing the Group 1 Goodwood Cup for the third straight season.

Europe’s champion staying horse of 2018, he occupies the same position again this season, adding the two-mile Goodwood Cup to earlier wins in the 1 ¾-mile Yorkshire Cup and the 2 ½-mile Gold Cup at Royal Ascot.

Dettori, riding for owner Bjorn Neilsen and Gosden, positioned Stradivarius near the back of the field and right behind Cross Counter for most of the Goodwood Cup trip, finally tipping wide with about a quarter-mile left as Stradivarius powered past Dee Ex Bee, who would finish second, and Cross Counter, 1 ¾ lengths farther back in third. The winning margin was a neck but would have been greater had Dettori not risen in the saddle to celebrate in the closing strides.