Goodwood Saturday

Coral Glorious Stakes

RICHARD Spencer and owner Phil Cunningham dominated the Stewards’ Cup at Goodwood on Saturday, with the combination responsible for three of the first five finishers, including winner Two Tribes (David Egan), who landed something of a gamble having halved in price overnight.

The 11/2 shot travelled strongly from a high draw, and kept on strongly to score by two lengths from Strike Red (Richard Fahey/Billy Garrity)

Run Boy Run and Twilight Calls finished fourth and fifth in Cunningham’s now familiar colours to give him and Spencer a most memorable day, just a week after Two Tribes had won a televised handicap over seven furlongs at Ascot.

Easy for Aasy

The 13/8 favourite Al Aasy (William Haggas/Jim Crowley) followed up last year’s win in the mile and a half Glorious Stakes travelling well held up and leading over a furlong out to beat Meydaan (Simon & Ed Crisford/Ryan Moore) and front-running stablemate Candleford (Tom Marquand) by three lengths and one and a half lengths.

This was an eighth Group 3 win for the eight-year-old Al Aasy, and he became the first to win back-to-back renewals of this contest since Dick Hern’s Capstan in 1981 and 1982.

Haggas said: “Isn’t Al Aasy marvellous? He is a fabulous horse. He is pretty reliable in this grade when things set up like that.

“They didn’t go very fast today, and he usually likes a stronger pace. But they picked up well up the straight, he still found a gear and actually ran on strongly today. Usually, he wins by half a length or a neck.

“I think at eight years old, this is probably his level; he is a very strong traveller, so you can imagine at home, where we don’t get them off the bridle, he looks like Nijinsky every time! He is so reliable and catches the eye every morning. He has been a joy for us. He is a beautiful horse.”

Crowley said: “Al Aasy has been brilliant. He was called a couple of names early on and I think it is very unjust now. I have finally learnt how to ride him!

“In that grade, he loves it. He can boss them and, in fairness to William and Maureen, they have done a great job of keeping him sweet and getting the longevity out of him. For an eight-year-old, he still has plenty of enthusiasm.”

THE unexposed Waardah (Owen Burrows/Callum Rodriguez) relished the step up to a mile and a three-quarters for the first time and made the breakthrough at pattern level when taking the Group 2 Qatar Lillie Langtry Stakes.

Patiently ridden, the daughter of Postponed was pulled out to challenge early in the straight and found plenty to get the better of proven stayers Danielle (John & Thady Gosden/James Doyle) and Goodie Two Shoes (Joseph O’Brien/William Buick), getting the better of a battle with the former to win by three-parts of a length, with a gap of four lengths to the third.

Winner of the Listed Agnes Keyser Stakes at this track when last seen in June, Waardah, a 7/2 chance, was up half a mile in trip but seemed to relish the test of stamina as much as she did the track, leading two furlongs out and turning back the determined Danielle for a career-best performance.

Hindsight

Burrows said: “Callum said Waardah switched off great and, in hindsight, he probably got there a little bit too soon, but we are still learning about her. She is inexperienced but very honest. I thought when the runner-up came to her, she was going to get outstayed, but in the last half furlong she was probably going away again. She will have no trouble going back to a mile and a half either, so she is an exciting filly.

“She has always shown up well at home, so it was no surprise she won first time up, even though it was only a four-runner race. We stepped her up into listed class, but she didn’t really handle Newmarket back then.

“She is in the Yorkshire Oaks, although I think it is important that she gets a little bit of juice in the ground. We will see how she comes out of this, but I think Ascot at the end of the year for the Fillies & Mares would be right up her street.”

Rodriguez was one of the jockeys involved when the plane they were flying in had to make an emergency landing earlier in the week, and he joked: “It was a messy start to the week, but we made sure that we were on four wheels today. I am very pleased to get that one off my back!”

There was an Irish winner on the final day when the Camelot two-year-old Isaac Newton got on top in the later stages of the seven-furlong maiden to justify odds of 8/13 by a neck for Aidan O’Brien.

VICTORY for Gladius in the final race of the Qatar Goodwood Festival ensured Andrew Balding claimed the top trainer title at the meeting for a second time.

The Kingsclere handler, who first won the award in 2021, shaded Ralph Beckett on a countback of placed horses after both had sent out four winners during the week.

Balding’s other victories came via Stellar Sunrise in the British Stallion Studs EBF Maiden on Tuesday, Sir Albert in the Phase Eight Nursery on Thursday and the impressive Fox Legacy in the Bentinck Conditions Stakes on the Friday.

Oisin Murphy missed the ride on Gladius through suspension, but still claimed the top jockey award for a second successive year thanks to a superb week that yielded six winners, including the Balding-trained trio Stellar Sunrise, Sir Albert and Fox Legacy.

In addition to Fox Legacy, Murphy rode the first two winners on Friday – Kyle Of Lochalsh in the Coral Goodwood Handicap and Seagulls Eleven in the Group 3 Bonhams Thoroughbred Stakes for Hughie Morrison and Hugo Palmer respectively. Coolmore Partners were again the leading owners at the meeting, thanks in large part to Group 1 wins from Scandinavia and Whirl in the Goodwood Cup and Nassau Stakes.

Around the Tracks

THERE were a couple of notable wins for Irish stables last week, starting at Newmarket on Saturday where Alexandra Egan, daughter of John Egan and Sandra Hughes, rode Mary Shoelaces to victory in the Taylors of Soham Handicap for Eddie & Patrick Harty, despite the 7lb-claimer, who works for Jane Chapple-Hyam, losing her whip in the closing stages aboard the 4/1 shot.

On Tuesday at Lingfield, Joseph O’Brien struck with 2/11 favourite Teewinot in a two-year-old fillies’ maiden, with Sean Levey riding the daughter of Sioux Nation for owner Phillip Antonacci.