Goodwood Tuesday preview: All eyes on Courage Mon Ami

“Potentially an outstanding stayer”.

So say Timeform of Courage Mon Ami going into this afternoon’s Al Shaqab Goodwood Cup.

He’s not your conventional long-distance superstar – well not yet anyway. Not many go into the Ascot Gold Cup on only their fourth career start and emerge with an unbeaten record intact.

A son of Frankel in the Wathnam Racing silks that are set to become a fixture on all the big days in the years ahead, he’s made rapid strides since making a winning debut over a mile-and-a-half at Kempton in the September of his three-year-old campaign.

To go from success off a mark of 98 in a Goodwood handicap to winning the most prestigious staying prize on the calendar in less than three weeks is some going. And the question is just how much more is there under the bonnet?

He does have others to answer today too. The main one being his ability to handle the ground. It’s his first turf start on anything other than a good to firm surface.

And then there are two rivals who plenty think they can reverse Ascot form.

First up is runner-up Coltrane who looked booked for his biggest pay-day when going to the front two out in the Berkshire sunshine only to be swamped by Courage Mon Ami a furlong later. Oisin Murphy felt he made himself a target that day by making his move too soon – and is in no mood to repeat the manoeuvre.

Speaking on Luck On Sunday he said: "I'd love to reverse the form. I got sucked into the race plenty early enough and I gave Frankie a target. It's quite rare a jockey can change course, almost have their momentum stopped, and still pick up and win, but that's what Frankie managed to do on Courage Mon Ami.

"Analysing that, I have to think we really slowed down late on and I'll have that in my mind approaching Goodwood. I certainly don't want to be Frankie's target on Tuesday."

WATCH: Courage Mon Ami win the Ascot Gold Cup

He won’t want to be Emily Dickinson’s either. She was fourth at Ascot on ground that didn’t play to her strengths. The weather forecast suggests Tuesday’s will.

She heads to Goodwood off the back of a taking win in the Curragh Cup at…well the Curragh…and Aidan O’Brien’s rain dance has been answered.

“Ryan (Moore) was happy with her at the Curragh and felt she won very easily. She is a filly we really fancied for the Gold Cup. She ran a good race and came out of it well,” he said.

“She loved the ease in the ground at the Curragh. She comes out of races on fast ground perfectly, which suggests it does not bother her, but she appears much better with an ease in the ground. It hinders other horses, whereas she appears to grow another leg on soft ground.”

A five-legged Emily Dickinson, a stalking Coltrane and testing ground lie in wait then for Courage Mon Ami.

Penalty-kick this ain't. But it’s the next logical step up the ladder for a horse who might just be the sort of staying superstar that the game throws up now and then; the sort of horse who the public really latch onto; the sort of horse who overcomes various obstacles to win a Goodwood Cup.

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