Coral Racing Ambassador, Hugo Palmer, provides an exclusive preview of his one runner at Glorious Goodwood this afternoon, as well as his thoughts on the Lennox Stakes and the Goodwood Cup.

15:25 Vintage Stakes – Soldier’s Gold

We’re taking a substantial jump in grade with Soldier’s Gold here, but he’s a horse I’ve liked all the way through and he’s done everything right from a very young age. His first two runs were pleasing, and while he really seems to have improved since getting his head in front, this will certainly require another big step forward.

We wouldn’t have necessarily chosen stall 8 of 9 for him, but when we won the race with Galileo Gold we were in stall 9, so we’ve proven it isn’t impossible to win from out there.

He’s looked to me like he’s ready for this step up in trip, and his half brother Mr McCann stayed an extended mile, so I do think we might see even more improvement from him on Tuesday. He definitely won’t mind the cut in the ground either, so being one of the more experienced horses in the race it wouldn’t surprise me at all if he put up a big performance.

16:00 – Lennox Stakes

I had a very good look at this race as we were seriously thinking about running Brad The Brief here, but I think we’ll go to France on Sunday for the Maurice de Gheest instead. Kinross and Al Suhail are in the Maurice de Gheest too but I see they’ve both been declared here, so it might just be that Sunday’s race is an easier opportunity for our horse.

Holguin has been running very well in these 7f races of late and he won the Listed race at Chester last time in good fashion on testing ground, so it wouldn’t surprise me if he outran his odds here as I see he’s priced up as the outsider of the field.

You’d have to think KINROSS is the one they’ll have to beat though, and what a horse he’d be to have in your yard. He just keeps turning up and giving his running, and although he probably found the ground too quick in the Jubilee at Ascot, he bounced right back with a good third in the July Cup last time.

It will be a fascinating race, but I just think 7f on soft ground is Kinross’s optimum conditions, and if he runs to form then he’ll take all the beating.

16:35 – Goodwood Cup

It hasn’t been a Group 1 for all that long the Goodwood Cup, but this looks a proper Group 1 contest and it’s attracted a much bigger field than I thought it would have done.

Courage Mon Ami was very impressive at Ascot in the Gold Cup, and you could call him the winner from a very long way out. He did look to have the measure of a few of these that day, but this is the first time he’s running over this trip and a few of the others just didn’t appear to stay as strongly as him in the Gold Cup. It wouldn’t be a huge shock if the likes of Emily Dickinson and Eldar Eldarov were able to get a lot closer to him this time round.

Coltrane shouldn’t have any problem with conditions, and while he does look the biggest danger to the favourite, it does look a deep race with some top-class stayers in opposition.

Admittedly he’d be a shock winner, but I thought QUICKTHORN looked overpriced at 16-1 at the time of writing. He hasn’t been at his absolute best this season but if he could bounce back to the form of his victory in the Lonsdale Cup last year, then it wouldn’t surprise me if he ran a big race for Hughie Morrison.

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Hugo Palmer, Coral Racing Ambassador