It's Glorious, It's Goodwood!
Glorious Goodwood is the third major flat racing festival of the summer and it's truly an oasis for any spread bettor who adores flat racing. Set on the idyllic Sussex Downs, the course is very demanding and course form often proves important here. It is also wise for spread punters to look at the trainers who target this meeting year-in year-out, just like Mark Johnston who was on fire 12 months ago.
There are five days of top quality action, but the first major highlight is Wednesday's Sussex Stakes which is likely to see the mouthwatering battle between Canford Cliffs and last year's winner Rip Van Winkle. Spread bettors will be interested to learn that this race was opened up to four-year-olds in 1960 and then to five-year-olds and above in 1975. 'Rip' will be many people's idea of the winner after his highly impressive performance last July, winning by 2 1/2 lengths, the first horse to win the race by more than 2 lengths in the past decade. However, no horse has ever won this more than once which is a blow to those that will be buying him on the spreads. Aidan O'Brien's record in the race is not to be sniffed at though, winning the last two renewals and four of the last ten.
Canford Cliffs proved himself to be a top quality horse when winning the St James' Palace Stakes at Royal Ascot and his spread followers will be encouraged by the record of three-year-olds in this race. The classic generation have won six of the last ten runnings and 24 of the last 34 since the race was opened up to five-year-olds in 1975. There have been four winning favourites in the past decade which will please SP sellers on the spreads, especially that the last two jollies have both been successful. However, prior to Henrythenavigator's win in 2008, no favourite had won since Rock Of Gibraltar in 2002 and Reel Buddy took this prize at 20/1 in 2003.
Thursday's highlight is the Goodwood Cup, famously won by Double Trigger three times in the 90's and last year by Godolphin's Schiaperelli. There are no clear trends for spread bettors to follow in terms of age as a four-year-old (Allegretto) and a ten-year-old (Persian Punch) have won the race in the past seven years. However, you have to go back 21 years for the last time a three-year-old won this contest, so most spread punters will be opposing any of the younger generation that line up.
The most successful current trainer of the race is Mark Johnston with five wins since 1995, but three of those were down to the incredible Double Trigger. Other trainers with a strong record in the race for spread bettors to consider are Sir Michael Stoute, Aidan O'Brien, David Elsworth and Saeed bin Suroor, who have all won the race twice since 1999. In fact, the only other trainer to win this since 1997 is Alan Jarvis with Jardines Lookout in 2002.
This has been a good race for spread sellers of SP's recently, as five of the last six favourites have won. Allegretto was successful at 8/1 in 2007, but that was a big shock as she was the first filly to win the race since Gladness in 1958.
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