Saturday reviewed, race by race, alongside what we said in Friday's preview.
The story of the afternoon was the weather. It rained at Goodwood and kept raining, and the ground went to Good to Soft having been Good to Firm when we wrote the preview. That mattered enormously, because from the 2:00 onwards the jockeys stopped racing where the card said they should and went hunting for better ground, first to the near side and then, by the 2:35, straight across to the far rail.
The headline is that our Top Rated won the Irish Cambridgeshire and we landed 3 of our selections. The 2 races we flagged as watching briefs, and which were free, are below. The rest is for members.
1:25 Goodwood: the runner-up is the one to take out
Silverella won it at 14/1, a horse our ratings had 8th, so this was not a race the figures got hold of.
Our Top Rated Lily Pink was 5th at 9/4. She was a shade weak in the market beforehand and she never got into it in the closing stages. The winner tracked her throughout and beat her largely on positioning.
The horse to take out of the race is the runner-up. Rhythm Of My Heart was 3/1 and went the whole way round the outside, giving away a substantial amount of ground, and still only just failed. We do not think she gets beaten if she races anywhere near the inside.
She is now 2 from 2 as a runner-up, having been beaten at 11/4 on debut at Kempton on 10 August, so she carried a beaten favourite marker into this and picks up another. Connections will presumably want to win one before the handicapper has seen enough, and we think she does. She goes into our tracker, and she will be genuinely interesting once she gets a mark.
The 3rd, Roku Nana, was our 2nd rated and went off 5/1 for Roger Varian. She will have learned plenty and will step forward. The front 3 pulled well clear, so this was not a bad race at all.
1:40 Sandown: experience wins it, and the 3rd is the one
Our Top Rated Tall Trees won at 6/4, and he did it the simple way: the most experienced horse in the race got an easy lead and made it count.
He had to battle. Victoria Night travelled beautifully on debut and traded as low as 1.15 in running, but she could not get past.
The one we came for was Flower Show, the Charlie Appleby newcomer with William Buick booked, and she was 3rd having been well supported into 6/4 joint favourite with the winner. She ran on strongly at the finish without ever getting a clear crack at it, and we think she is well above average. With that experience behind her and a clear run she is a nice filly to be with, and she goes into our tracker. Our 2nd rated on figures before she had run a yard, and the run said the figures were right.
From here on it is the selections, and they are for members.