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Goodwood and Galway Racing Tips Today | Timeform experts' predictions for Saturday
Find out who the Timeform experts fancy at Goodwood and Galway on Saturday and which horses stand out on ratings and Flags.
Best bets from the Timeform experts
Rory King: Al Aasy - 13:50 Goodwood
Al Aasy has never been the easiest horse to warm to, enduring several short-priced reverses in recent years and some even shorter ones in running, but he’s a strong traveller with a turn of foot, and this is a race that should enable him to use those assets to good effect. He’s got to turn around form with Phantom Flight from their respective reappearances a fortnight ago, but he improved bundles from his first to second run last season, while fast ground is no issue to him.
Graeme North: Fairbanks - 14:25 Goodwood
Align The Stars has won his last two races at Thirsk and Haydock and is progressive, but I’m not sure those efforts deserve to see him head the market in this much more competitive affair and I’d much rather be with Fairbanks who scored at Newmarket last time after a creditable run at Royal Ascot. He’s gone up 6lb for that but nothing could live with him when Oisin Murphy sent him for home a long way out and, if he’s the pattern performer he looked that day, a mark of 100 won’t stop him here.
Mark Milligan: Fairbanks - 14:25 Goodwood
Andrew Balding’s Fairbanks has improved throughout the season, winning a handicap at Newcastle in June before posting good efforts at Hamilton and Royal Ascot. He progressed again when taking another handicap at Newmarket’s July meeting last time, impressing with how he went about things and soon having matters in hand when asked, whilst relishing the step up in trip. He took that off a mark of 94, but was value for extra, and the handicapper may have erred on the side of leniency by only putting him up 6lb here.
Kieran Clark: Caius Chorister - 15:00 Goodwood
This year’s Lillie Langtry promises to be well run and that should play firmly into the hands of the reliable Caius Chorister. Progressive last season, she posted a pair of excellent efforts when a close second in both the Sagaro and Henry II Stakes on her first two starts this year before finding the Gold Cup too hot at Royal Ascot last time. She can race freely but the tempo of this race promises to suit and with the yard going well at present is fancied to capitalise on the drop in grade back against just her own sex.
David Johnson: Purosangue – 15:35 Goodwood
Weight-for-age considerations mean that three-year-olds rarely get into the top all-aged handicaps but when they do, they tend to overperform compared to chance. Only 16 three-year-olds have contested the last ten Stewards’ Cups, but they’ve bagged three of them, so Seven Questions and Purosangue catch the eye with the latter looking particularly interesting considering his trainer took this with three-year-old Dancing Star in 2016. The positives don’t end there as Purosangue looks the pick of the weights on account of his improved showing in a Group 3 at Sandown last time, going down by just three-quarters length when second behind Makarova. He seems versatile with regards ground and ran well at this meeting as a juvenile when beaten a neck by Big Evs in the Molecomb. With Oisin Murphy up, he must have an excellent chance of making this first foray into handicaps a winning one.
Billy Nash: Dragon of Malta - 16:50 Galway
The weather in the West of Ireland has taken a turn for the worse so the ability to handle soft ground is going to be key this weekend. That will be music to the ears of connections of Dragon of Malta who looks to have a great chance of following up last year’s win in the Ardilaun Hotel handicap. He has been given a very similar preparation to last year and a good run at Killarney last time showed that he is coming to the boil at just the right time. He is back down to the same mark he won off last year and the fact that Shane Foley, who has won on him around here in the past, keeps the ride is another positive.
Ratings and Flags
The Ratings Choice
Free Wind - 15:00 Goodwood
Free Wind was well beaten in this contest last season but it's easy to excuse that effort as the extremely testing conditions placed too much emphasis on stamina, and her Park Hill Stakes success in 2021 shows that she stays this far granted a sounder surface.
Free Wind quickly put that Lillie Langtry disappointment behind her by putting up her best effort of the campaign when only narrowly denied by Warm Heart in the Group 1 Yorkshire Oaks.
That was a smart performance from Free Wind, who was only beaten a head and pulled two and a quarter lengths clear of the third, and the form she showed there is the best on offer and places her 2 lb clear on Timeform's ratings.
She wasn't at her best and was easily brushed aside by Bluestocking on her return at York in May but she was by no means disgraced bearing in mind what that rival has since achieved.
The Timeform Flag
Jehangeer - 16:10 Goodwood
Flag: Horse In Focus
Jehangeer was gelded and given a breathing operation after shaping with encouragement when third on his handicap debut and reappearance at Newmarket in May and he took a step forward to score at Thirsk last month.
Jehangeer looked uncomfortable with the pace and was rather taken off his feet in the early stages of that six-furlong handicap, but he came with a late surge to lead half a furlong out and was ultimately well on top, passing the post with an advantage of a length and a quarter.
The strength Jehangeer showed at the finish suggests that he'll relish this step up to seven furlongs, while his tall physique and excellent pedigree (brother to Group 1 winner Hello Youmzain) offers encouragement that he can keep on progressing. He's the only runner in this line-up with the Timeform 'p' to denote that he's likely to improve.
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