The Qatar Goodwood Festival gets under way on Tuesday, and it is one of the highlights of the entire Flat season: five days of top-class racing on the Sussex Downs, Tuesday through to Saturday. We have gone through the opening-day card and picked out the horses we actually want to be with, in time order, saying plainly which is a free steer, which are the ones for members, and why.
There is a competition to tell you about, too. For the festival we are running a special five-day tipping event, and all you have to do to enter is submit at least one of your NAPs on a horse running at Goodwood over the five days, Tuesday to Saturday. Get your selection in, and as long as your horses keep finding the winner's enclosure you stay in the running right through the week. It is free to take part: pick your NAP on the racecards and you are in.
1:50 Goodwood: Al Aali is our free selection in the Chesterfield Cup
The 1:50, the Chesterfield Cup, is a hot handicap over 1m2f, and we cannot get away from our top rated runner, Al Aali (George Scott, William Buick). So we will give this one away as a freebie, because we simply think he is the best horse in the race.
Two runs ago he ran a good fifth over 1m4f at Newmarket, and the penny seemed to drop that he does not want that far. Dropped back to 1m2f on the July course last time, he was a really smart winner, and crucially he beat High Degree, who was sent off a well-backed favourite that day. For a performance like that he went up just 5lb, from 88 to 93, and we were surprised it was not more. That is not enough to stop him, and he looks a big player out early on day one.
