THE Qatar Goodwood Festival takes place next week, and while the crowds will be absent (until a small number are allowed to attend on Saturday), the setting remains glorious.

As long as the officials can avoid the shambles of late race times which marred the televised coverage of Galway last year, then racing fans should be in for a tremendous feast of racing from both tracks. I’ve chosen a couple of interesting runners on the first couple of days in the hope of finding a value winner or two.