Ryan Moore’s World Pool blog: Goodwood Cup Day
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Goodwood | Race 2: Group 2 Vintage Stakes
I’m on DORSET in the Vintage Stakes. He’s a lovely big two-year-old by Wootton Bassett from the family of Winter who won the Nassau here a few years ago. He’s had two starts and ran very well on both occasions over seven furlongs (1400m) at the Curragh. He was second on debut and then won at the Irish Derby meeting, making all and beating a subsequent winner. He’s stepping up in class here but the fact he’s had two runs will benefit him on a tricky track. He looks as though he has a nice draw in two. He’ll probably be favourite.
There are a few horses in here with superior form at the moment. Humidity won the Chesham at Royal Ascot. He’s two from two and is an interesting horse. Zavateri is also two from two, winning the Group 2 July Stakes at Newmarket earlier this month with Do Or Do Not second to him that day. He’s still a maiden but he was also runner up in the Coventry at Royal Ascot with Andab back in fourth that day. It’s quite a deep race on form but I’m looking forward to riding Dorset.
Goodwood | Race 4: Group 1 Goodwood Cup
ILLINOIS goes for the Goodwood Cup. He’s done very little wrong in his whole career. He’s never been out of the three. He won on his seasonal debut at Chester and ran a good race when second in the Gold Cup over two and a half miles (4000m). He’s back to two miles here (3200m) and the ground looks like it’s going to be good, so he should be suited by conditions. He probably just about sets the standard coming into the race but there’s not a huge amount between the eight runners on the figures.
The two horses we don’t know about at the moment are our other horse, Scandinavia, who was very impressive at the July meeting. He looks like he could be suited by the step up to two miles and he gets a lot of weight as a three-year-old. The other horse is French Master who was a good winner of the 1m6f (2800m) Copper Horse Handicap at the Royal meeting. There are some consistent older horses in here like Sweet William and Trueshan. Dubai Future is probably overpriced. He was a good winner in Dubai at the start of the year and dropping back to two miles will suit him.