Timeform pick out the ratings banker, a big improver and a selection based on the Timeform Flags on the final day of the Qatar Goodwood Festival.
The ratings banker
Wonderful Tonight – 15:05 Goodwood
Conditions weren’t soft enough for Wonderful Tonight to take her chance in last Saturday’s King George at Ascot, but there’s been plenty of rain on the south coast in the last week – and potentially a bit more to come - which means David Menuisier’s filly lines up in the Lillie Langtry Stakes instead. Having to miss Ascot may well have been a blessing in disguise as Wonderful Tonight would have had her work cut out against Adayar, but she looks a cut above the majority of the other fillies and mares she faces in this Group 2 contest, even with her 3 lb penalty.
Wonderful Tonight’s only defeat in her last five starts came on unsuitably firm ground in last season’s Prix Vermeille, but she’s shown in other recent outings that she not only relishes a softer surface, but also that she’s going from strength to strength. Her first Group 1 win came in the Prix de Royallieu at Longchamp over the same trip she tackles here, a mile and a three-quarters, before she followed up in the Fillies’ & Mares’ Stakes at Ascot. She then carried on where she left off last season with an impressive victory in the Hardwicke Stakes at Royal Ascot. That form has worked out really well since, with runner-up Broome among those to boost it since by winning the Grand Prix de Saint-Cloud.
The big improver
Khanjar – 16:10 Goodwood
Most of the two-year-olds in this seven-furlong maiden are seeing a racecourse for the first time but a handful have experience and the William Haggas-trained Khanjar can be expected to make above-average improvement from his debut at Ascot earlier in the month. Sent off at 5/1, Khanjar was the best-backed of the newcomers in the novice contest but wasn’t as clued-up for his debut as many by his sire Kodiac tend to be, but he certainly shaped encouragingly.
Steadied at the start, Khanjar ran green at halfway before making steady progress and then kept on in the final furlong after not getting the clearest of runs. He was beaten three lengths at the line in a never-dangerous fourth behind the winner Atrium, while he has a length to make up on the runner-up Flying Secret, his main rival on form whom he meets again here. From a Shadwell family which his stable knows well, Khanjar earned the Timeform ‘large P’ for his debut which means a good deal of improvement is expected.
The Timeform Flag
Music Society – 13:55 Goodwood
(Top rated, Horse in focus)
Tim Easterby has won the Stewards’ Cup before and has Lampang to represent him in this year’s renewal but he has also two runners in the consolation event, the Stewards’ Sprint, earlier on the card. Staxton jointly tops the weights but it’s stablemate Music Society who looks particularly well treated further down the handicap and earned the ‘Horse in focus’ flag on his latest outing.
That came when Music Society only just missed out on another good sprint handicap prize a week ago when touched off by a short head by Venturous in the Sky Bet Dash at York. He shaped very well there, doing everything right under a waiting ride only to succumb to a rival whose challenge was delayed even later. At the age of six, Music Society is in the form of his life but can race off a 4 lb lower mark here than he did last time. He’d suffered another narrow defeat earlier this month in the Scottish Stewards’ Cup at Hamilton after not getting the clearest of runs but he had better luck when a narrow winner at Pontefract back in June under Cam Hardie who is on board again for the first time since here.
More from Sporting Life
Safer gambling
We are committed in our support of safer gambling. Recommended bets are advised to over-18s and we strongly encourage readers to wager only what they can afford to lose.
If you are concerned about your gambling, please call the National Gambling Helpline / GamCare on 0808 8020 133.
Further support and information can be found at begambleaware.org and gamblingtherapy.org.
Fast Results
Scores
