Goodwood all set for a Glorious week of action
The five-day Glorious Goodwood meeting kicks off in West Sussex today, it’s a week famous for panama hats, linen suits and of course a host of top-class racing.
With three Group 1s throughout the week, kicking off with the Goodwood Cup (Gr 1, 2m) today, the Sussex Stakes (Gr 1, 1m) tomorrow, while the Nassau Stakes (Gr 1, 1m 2f) caps off the week’s elite action on Thursday.
The first three days of the festival are World Pool days, meaning global punters can bet into a single pool, bringing them together into one multi-million pound pool betting experience.
A collaboration between global totes and the Hong Kong Jockey Club, Black Caviar Lightning Stakes day made up some of the World Pool races earlier this year and Ed Arkell, clerk of the course at Goodwood, told ANZ Bloodstock News that the pool’s reinvestment back into the sport has already been felt.
“It’s fantastic for the globalisation of racing and it creates a huge pool with fantastic liquidity, with as many different territories betting into it as possible and what that does is it enables the returns that come from that be reinvested into racing,” he said.
“At Goodwood we have had the confirmed days and the increase in prize-money, there has been an injection of 800,000 more in prize-money across the season, and it is undoubtedly a direct result and benefit of World Pool.”
Arkell believes World Pool is aiding the globalisation of racing and therefore helping to extend the reach of the sport.
“Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday are World Pool days at Goodwood this year and it is hugely important that as an industry we are supporting that, because it is hugely important to not just British racing, but global racing,” said Arkell.
“Those top-level meetings, of which there are probably three or four in each country every year, have to stick together and create a Formula One-type system where everyone is moving around and the attention is on wherever the racing meeting happens to be.
“Every territory has their best meetings and if we can really push that and see the best riders and best horses competing at those meetings, it can only be good for the global reach of racing.”
Over the past few years, Goodwood has become a mainstay in the calendars of many Australian racing identities, but it has been a few years since an Australian runner has graced the famous idiosyncratic track.
Arkell explained the fact that there is no Group 1 sprint throughout the week, with the King George Stakes (Gr 2, 5f) on Friday the main race on the programme for the speedsters.
“The majority of the Australian horses that come across do tend to be sprinters and while we have King George Stakes over five furlongs, which Ortensia won when she stayed over here for the summer, we don’t actually have a Group 1 sprint,” Arkell said.
“However, you would think that an Australian horse who ran well in a sprint at Royal Ascot, but hadn’t won, you would think it would be an ideal opportunity for them to drop them back in class, have a confidence-boosting run and then go on to York or Ireland or even France.
“That would seem to be the sensible option – it would be nice to see Australian horses stay for Goodwood, because it is a brilliant week.”
While racing takes centre stage over the five days, there are other activities for fans to get stuck into, something Arkell believes makes the festival a truly unique event.
“The quality of the racing is just as high at Goodwood as it is at Ascot, albeit we do have some lower class races, but it is still ultra competitive and it is probably the last race week left in the UK and maybe even the world,” said Arkell.
“It is not just five days of racing, there are all the social events that go on around the estate in the evenings, such as the cricket match, various dinners and the ball. There is always something going on and that gives it a very special atmosphere – it is a very special week.
“We always have a fair chunk of Australians come for the meeting and get involved in some of the events on the estate, it would be lovely to see that backed up with some runners as well.”
Some of the household names to have clinched the Sussex Stakes in the past include Baaeed (Sea The Stars), Too Darn Hot (Dubawi), Kingman (Invincible Spirit) and the great Frankel (Galileo) on the roll of honour.
This year the Group 1 is headed by Coolmore’s multiple Group 1-winning colt Paddington (Siyouni), who will be aiming to add a fourth Group 1 to his victories in the Irish 2,000 Guineas (Gr 1, 1m), St James’s Palace Stakes (Gr 1, 1m) and Coral-Eclipse (Gr 1, 1m 2f). The colt has been mooted for a potential Cox Plate (Gr 1, 2040m) campaign, so all eyes will be on him when he takes to the track tomorrow.
“It is great to see the really top-class racing and it is great to build up to a really big festival meeting and see everything come together and I love the buzz of that. I think the Sussex Stakes is obviously going to be very interesting, with Paddington entered to run,” said Arkell.
“It will be fascinating to see him run at Goodwood and we are grateful to Aidan (O’Brien, trainer) and Coolmore for supporting us and a horse like him is a real crowd puller. When Frankel was running racecourses did see an increase in their attendance and hopefully he can have the same effect.”