Day three of the Qatar Goodwood Festival, and the feature is the Qatar Nassau Stakes at 3:35, a Group 1 for fillies and mares. Only five go to post, but it is a fascinating little race, and we are taking on the hot pot. More on that below.
There is still time to join our festival competition, too. Submit at least one of your NAPs on a horse running at Goodwood across the five days and you are in: pick your NAP on the racecards.
As always, the first race of the day is free for everybody.
1:50 Coral Kincsem Handicap: Savvy Disko keeps improving
The 1:50, the Coral Kincsem Heritage Handicap, is a mile and two furlongs for three year olds, and we want Savvy Disko (S Woods, Billy Loughnane). He is very unexposed, he is going the right way fast, and the Billy Loughnane booking is a positive.
Look at how he has been campaigned. He started out over seven furlongs at Newmarket, finishing third at 28/1 behind Castlerock, who was sent off odds on and looks a smart sort. He stayed at seven for his next run and again shaped nicely. Then they stepped him up to a mile on the all weather at Lingfield and he won, and that is the run we keep coming back to, because the horse he beat was Always Happy, a Roger Varian runner sent off at 1/3. Beating an odds on Varian horse is not nothing.
Back at Lingfield over a mile and a furlong he won again, this time off a mark of 85 and comfortably. He is 9lb higher here, which is a fair hike, but everything about him says a horse still ahead of the assessor, and this is another step up in trip, which we think is exactly what he wants. He is also back on turf.
Our honest view on the price is that it is bigger than it should be because of where he is trained. If this horse were in the care of Roger Varian or John Gosden we suspect he would be a good deal shorter than he is.