Horse Racing Tips Today: Timeform preview for Goodwood

The Ratings Banker

The Platinum Queen – 16.45 Goodwood

Baaeed won’t really be a backable price in the Sussex Stakes but he’s not the only standout on ratings on the card as The Platinum Queen looks to have plenty in hand on her rivals at level weights in this five-furlong conditions race for two-year-old fillies.

Richard Fahey’s filly was still in need of the experience on her second start in the Queen Mary Stakes at Royal Ascot when not helped by being hampered soon after the start but she has won her other two races both before and since. She looked a good prospect when making a winning debut at Ripon a fortnight before Ascot and confirmed that when taking apart another novice contest at York earlier this month.

Soon going with zest in the lead, The Platinum Queen had far too much speed for her rivals and went clear in the final two furlongs to win with plenty in hand by three and three quarter lengths from odds-on favourite Yahsat who’d finished a couple of places in front of The Platinum Queen at Ascot and had been listed-placed before that. That was a useful effort from The Platinum Queen who wouldn’t have looked out of place in the Molecomb Stakes earlier on the card and she can make it three out of four here.

The Big Improver

Soulcombe – 13.50 Goodwood

There are some progressive three-year-olds in this handicap over a mile and a half, including top weight Secret State who completed a hat-trick in last month’s King George V Stakes at Royal Ascot. But the big improver could be at the opposite end of the handicap where Soulcombe takes the eye for the combination of William Haggas and Cieron Fallon.

Soulcombe didn’t look anything out of the ordinary in his first three starts but is progressing fast now. A gelding operation may well have helped iron out some earlier quirks in his make-up, while the combination of the fitting of blinkers and a step up to a mile and a half for his last couple of starts in handicaps have no doubt helped him progress too.

By Frankel out of Group 1 winner Ribbons whose sister Soviet Song won the Sussex Stakes at this meeting, Soulcombe has a smart pedigree and it would be no surprise to see him take another step forward here. He showed plenty of improvement to win on his handicap debut at Haydock last month and he followed up under a penalty eight days later at Ascot when comfortably beating Teumessias Fox by a length and a half, looking one to keep on the right side.

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The Timeform Flag

Natasha – 16.10 Goodwood

Hot Trainer, Horse In Focus

Natasha made her final two-year-old start in the Prix Marcel Boussac on the Arc card which says plenty for the promise she’d shown up until then – she’d won in good style at Kempton and Sandown beforehand – and suggested she might even have classics on the agenda at three. Her pedigree certainly allowed the highest hopes for her as she’s a Frankel half-sister to top-class French colt Almanzor, winner of the Champion Stakes.

But something was evidently amiss at Longchamp as Natasha was the first beaten, trailing home last, and wasn’t seen out again until earlier this month. Another bid for black type would seem likely at some stage if she continues to go the right way but in the meantime she looks an interesting runner in handicaps for the in-form combination of John & Thady Gosden.

Natasha was seemingly her stable’s second string behind Morning Poem when the Gosden pair were placed behind Voodoo Queen in a fillies’ handicap at Newmarket 12 days ago. She was ridden as if there were no fitness doubts after her absence, making the running, but ultimately shaped as though that run might bring her on a little. That was still an improvement on her two-year-old form and, in the expectation that her recent run has blown away the cobwebs, she looks interesting off the same mark.

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