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Goodwood and Galway Racing Tips Today | Timeform experts' predictions for Friday
Find out who the Timeform experts fancy at Goodwood and Galway on Friday and which horses stands out on ratings and Flags.
Best bets from the Timeform experts
Kieran Clark: Super Superjack - 1.50 Goodwood
A typically wide-open renewal of this marathon event but one that appears to have been targeted at it is the 2022 runner-up Super Superjack. Progressive that season, he has shaped in a pair of runs this year as if most of his ability is retained following almost two years off - having joined Olly Murphy beforehand - looking badly in need of the run on his return before finding a mile and three quarters a wholly inadequate test at Ascot. The return to this trip looks bound to suit and, with Marquand booked and a well-run race on the cards to suit his patient style, he looks set for a big run.
David Johnson: Starlust - 3.35 Goodwood
There’s unlikely to be a lot between Asfoora, Big Evs and Believing judged on King Charles III form and at the prices I’m tempted to look elsewhere. Jasour looked an interesting runner back at five furlongs, but in his absence, it’s another three-year-old that makes most appeal in Starlust. In three runs at five furlongs he’s won twice and finished third at the Breeders’ Cup and was impressive in the City Walls Stakes at York last time. A strongly-run five furlongs looks right up his street and he’s likely to get a good tow into the race from the Czech-trained trailblazer Ponntos drawn next to him.
Graeme North: Cicero’s Gift - 4.10 Goodwood
Seasonal-debutant My Prospero didn’t come close to reproducing last season the top-class form he showed when third in the Champion Stakes on his final start in 2022 and indeed ended 2023 tried in blinkers in the same race only to finish last but one, so he’s a bit to prove now he’s turned five and clear preference is for Cicero’s Gift who looked a top-class prospect himself last season including when winning here by five and a half lengths in May but had his season cut short after meeting unrelenting trouble in running in the St James’s Palace Stakes. He wasn’t entitled to win from where he did at Sandown on his belated reappearance, but win he did so confirming all the positive impressions he’d made before Royal Ascot. In receipt of 2lb from My Prospero and with fitness on his side, he’ll take a fair bit of beating.
Rory King: Dambuster - 5.20 Goodwood
Dambuster was a disappointment when well fancied for his handicap debut at Sandown last month, but it’s possible that the ground was against him. Admittedly he’d won there on soft ground on his debut last year, but the ground for that last run seemed particularly holding and lots of horses didn’t seem to act on it – only two of the 10 in that race for instance were anywhere near form. Everything about his pedigree suggests he should be a horse who enjoys getting on a much sounder surface for the first time here. What’s more, he’s a horse who shapes as though he might benefit from headgear, so the fitting of a visor for the first time looks a potential positive, while a narrow defeat of Go Daddy (who was a good second in a French listed race on Saturday) on debut points to there being plenty of mileage in a mark of 90.
Billy Nash: Sirius - 6.35 Galway
It has been a bit of an up-and-down week for Willie Mullins at Galway, with the highlight, so far, being Sirius’s victory in the amateur-riders’ handicap on Monday night. The handicapper has seen fit to raise her twelve pounds for that win, so she is theoretically well-in under a mandatory seven-pound penalty here, and won’t be inconvenienced by the drop back in trip. Unfortunately, Sirius won’t be 50/1 this time but she looks well capable of following up.
Ratings and Flags
The Ratings Choice
Al Musmak – 14:25 Goodwood
Al Musmak developed into a useful juvenile last season, making a winning debut over seven furlongs at Ascot and also scoring in listed company over a mile at Haydock, before finishing runner-up to Ghostwriter in the Royal Lodge Stakes.
He made his seasonal return in the Dante Stakes at York, but he was on his toes in the preliminaries and was also fractious in the stalls, so he probably wasn’t in the right frame of mind to do himself justice (was reported amiss afterwards)
Al Musmak ran a better race in the Hampton Court Stakes at Royal Ascot next time, but he proved better than ever when winning the Sir Henry Cecil Stakes at Newmarket last month, looking well suited by the drop back to a mile.
He beat the likes of Lead Artist and Socialite on that occasion and he is taken to confirm that form now. Al Musmak is at least 3 lb clear of his rivals on Timeform weight-adjusted ratings and, with the potential for even better to come, he should prove hard to beat.
The Timeform Flag
Flanking Maneuver - 18:00 Galway
Flags: Horse In Focus, Top Rated
Flanking Maneuver opened his account over fences at Fairyhouse in October last year and he was far from disgraced pitched into Grade 1 company on his next start.
He has been a little hit and miss since, but he reacted well to first-time blinkers when hitting the frame in a useful handicap at Kilbeggan three weeks ago, leaving the impression he should have finished even closer.
Flanking Maneuver got shuffled back early on the final circuit and still had plenty to do three from home, but he kept on well from there to be never nearer than at the finish despite being less-than-fluent at the last. He is potentially well treated now and could have more to offer in this headgear.
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