Stars on Show at Galway and Glorious Goodwood Festivals
There is a fantastic seven days of horseracing ahead with Galway’s popular Summer Festival starting on Monday and the top-drawer Glorious Goodwood Festival getting underway on Tuesday.
Galway’s meeting is a mixture of flat and jumps racing. Handicap races are massively popular at the Irish fixture and the bulk of racing will see big fields go to post. The track’s showpiece contest is the Galway Plate. This famous race will take place on Wednesday evening.
Galway’s valuable Best Dressed Lady competition is as competitive as the racing action itself. ©GettyImages
A genuine Blue Riband event, the Galway Plate handicap chase attracts substantial mainstream media attention. It generates more betting turnover than any other race at the Festival.
Galway Festival’s Ladies Day is staged on Thursday. It is one of the most colorful events in European horseracing. And while €13,000 in cash prizes is up for grabs in the Best Dressed Lady competition, a big field will contest the competitive €250,000 Galway Handicap Hurdle.
Dress for Your Best at Goodwood
In total 130,000 racegoers are expected to attend the Galway Festival. Those that cannot be there can watch the action on the Irish state broadcaster, RTE. Specialist horse racing channel, Racing TV and the best online betting sites will also stream the action live.
Goodwood’s meeting – unlike the Galway Festival, featuring only afternoon races – will also be broadcast by Racing TV. ITV will cater to terrestrial viewers. Racegoers will have a very different experience with a strict dress code. The venue – that first raced in 1802 – proudly embraces a “quintessentially British style” meaning the meeting closely resembles the Henley Regatta!
On the track, the racing is very different too. Ten Group races make Glorious Goodwood one of the most prestigious meetings in the world. The first of three Group-1 contests will take place on Tuesday.
Will Stradivarius Play Another Winning Tune?
The two-mile Al Shaqab Goodwood Cup has been won by Stradivarius four times. Next week the gallant eight-year-old will attempt to claim the Group-1 prize once again. Stradivarius has already won 20 races. Victory on Tuesday will take his career earnings beyond £3 million.
Stradivarius (far side) in action with Frankie Dettori aboard. Andrea Atzeni will ride the superstar on Tuesday.
Frankie Dettori has partnered Stradivarius to glory in 15 Group races. But, in horse racing’s news story of the week, the Italian legend has lost the ride on the John and Thady Gosden-trained horse. He will be replaced by Andrea Atzeni.
Stradivarius’s owner-breeder Bjorn Nielsen decided to dispense with the veteran rider’s services following what many considered to be a tactically poor ride in the Gold Cup. Atzeni is unbeaten on the stayer in three starts. This includes two runnings of the Goodwood Cup.
Baaeed and Nashwa Set for More Group-1 Glory?
On Wednesday, two of the world’s best milers could clash in the Sussex Stakes. Three-year-old Coroebus won the 2000 Guineas on his seasonal debut and took a second Group-1 when winning the St James’s Palace Stakes at Royal Ascot five weeks ago.
But Baaeed is sure to start favorite for the contest – famously won by Frankel in 2011 and 2012 – given his unbeaten eight-race record. The William Haggas-trained horse is on a sequence of four consecutive Group-1 victories.
It is a daughter of Frankel, Nashwa, that the best horse racing betting sites make favorite for Thursday’s Group-1 Qatar Nassau Stakes. Nashwa was third in the English Oaks and saw off 16 rivals under Hollie Doyle to win the French Oaks two weeks later.
On paper, the three-year-old only has Inspiral to contend with. However, beaten on her latest outing just two weeks ago at odds of 1/7, this mare is unlikely to line up. Inspiral would be a risky betting proposition if she did.
