Big Orange among the big name contenders at Glorious Goodwood

It promises to be a fascinating few days of flat racing at the picturesque course in Sussex, England, where the most popular horse in flat racing seeks to become the first runner to win the Goodwood Cup three years in a row, along with other big names also chasing glory.

In a change to previous years, two of the biggest prizes of the Tuesday-to-Saturday festival, the Goodwood Cup and the Nassau Stakes, have both moved slots. The £500,000 Goodwood Cup has now been upgraded to Group One status and will be run on the opening afternoon today, opposed to its previous slot on Thursday. Meanwhile, the £600,000 Nassau Stakes for fillies and mares – which is already a Group One race – has also been moved from Saturday to be the feature race on Thursday.

Big Orange will hope to start the Festival with a bang by becoming the first horse to win the 205-year-old Goodwood Cup three times on the bounce.

Record holder Double Trigger was successful three times in four years – winning in 1995, 1997 and 1998, and now the big, powerful son of the stallion Duke Of Marmalade has chance to etch its name into the history books with victory today. The omens look good for that to happen particularly after Big Orange claimed a narrow success over Order Of St George in the Gold Cup at Royal Ascot in June. Now, with jockey Frankie Dettori back on board after missing Ascot because of injury and fresh from success on Enable in Saturday’s King George VI and Queen Elizabeth Stakes at the same course, Big Orange faces up to 15 opponents in the two-mile race.

Tomorrow (Wednesday) will see a proverbial ‘Duel on the Downs’ as Ribchester and Churchill are the main contenders for success when they go head-to-head in the £1m Sussex Stakes.

In recent years, there have been a series of interesting battles in this Group One race involving the likes of Kingman, Toronado, Canford Cliffs and two-time winner Frankel and this year’s renewal promises to be no different.

Ribchester, successful in this season’s Lockinge Stakes and Queen Anne Stakes, faces the three-year-old Churchill, who was victorious in the Newmarket and Irish 2000 Guineas in what promises to be a mouth-watering clash. This particularly as the Coolmore-owned and bred Churchill, trained by Aidan O’Brien, will be looking to bounce back from a defeat at Royal Ascot. However they may find that four-year-old Ribchester, trained by Richard Fahey and part of Sheikh Mohammed’s Godolphin contingent, could justify many observers pre-race predictions and just have the edge.

The three-year-old filly Winter will bid for a fourth straight Group One win of year in Thursday’s Nassau Stakes.

Having already enjoyed high profile success in both the Newmarket and Irish 1000 Guineas, as well as the Coronation Stakes at Royal Ascot, trainer Aidan O’Brien is upping her regular one mile distance by another quarter-mile which on paper should not prove to be a problem in keeping the winning run going.

Take Cover – or ‘TC’ as he is affectionately known to jockey-turned-trainer David Griffiths and his team in South Yorkshire – will attempt to become the first horse to record three wins in the Group Two King George Stakes on Friday and day four of the festival.

This will be the fifth year running that he has come to either the King George Stakes or to a supporting race, and he has never been out of the first two nor beaten by much.

To round off a busy few days at Goodwood, Saturday’s Stewards Cup will see Projection, trained by Roger Charlton, go into the race as one of the leading prospects.

After finishing a very creditable third at Royal Ascot in the Wokingham Handicap, when he was the first home of the runners racing on the stands’ side of the track, another trip over similar distance and coming up against a similar large field could see that performance improved upon.