By Tony Calvin - 30 July 2025
I mentioned in Tuesday’s column that this Goodwood meeting is at least a day too long, and we have some pretty disappointing field sizes on Wednesday.
Certainly, just nine runners for this 75k 3yo 0-105 handicap is poor, though we all know about the talent drain abroad in this area.
I can fully see why Sing Us A Song has been steadily backed from an opening [10/3] on Monday, and he is most definitely the one to beat.
He actually went off [10/3] for the 19-runner King George V handicap at Royal Ascot but his chance there pretty much ended at the gates, as he was very slowly away (after apparently playing up in the stalls) and it was game over, red rover.
In the circumstances, he actually ran pretty well to finish in midfield and little wonder the handicapper has left him on the same mark.
Certainly, his earlier comprehensive win at Sandown over 1m2f reads very well indeed.
He went up 7lb for that success but plenty of winners have come out of that race, so I’d suggest he is still very well-treated.
Indeed, the runner-up (who was only beaten ½ length off a 2lb higher mark next time up) is the only one of the first seven home not to have won since.
If he stays the 1m4f here, and doesn’t blow the start again, then he could take the world of beating and [9/4] probably isn’t a bad price.
That may be under pressure though (and only available in one place), and he is actually as short as 6/4 in a spot.
Trainer Ralph Beckett did a Goodwood stable tour for the Sporting Life website last week and he didn’t mention this horse, which the conspiracy theorist in me absolutely loves.
Let’s hope this race isn’t an afterthought anyway.
But at [15/8] and [7/4] – the most common prices out there – he is a sit-and-watch job, as there are two horses officially well-in here (Sudu by 2lb and Novelista by 1lb) and other lurkers like the nibbled-at Mdawi.
In fact, maybe you will get some 3s again at some stage.
We will see (and we have as he is now 3/1 with AKBets)
A decent field of 13 for this 100k 7f Group fillies and mares race (though it could have taken a maximum of 20) and a pretty hard puzzle to solve.
Little wonder we are getting four places in the main, with the usual mob going five places (they are again making you pay through the nose for it in most cases).
In fact, there is no bold type on their prices on Oddschecker.
I couldn’t see much of an angle into this race if truth be told now that my main 50-1 each way fancy, Chic Colombine, is out – I was delighted to see she hadn’t eaten up, and got pulled out at 5.10am, so I had to bin a shedload of copy – so I’ll keep this pretty brief.
Eve Johnson Houghton will have worked wonders if Betty Clover wins this as I feared the worst for her when she appeared to break down in the Sandringham and was promptly pulled up.
Certainly, she was overpriced at the early 33s on her previous form this season, which included a nose second to subsequent Royal Ascot winner Crimson Advocate here, but there will be no hiding place in a 7f battle against 12 rivals here.
Still, her trainer must be 100pc on her soundness – and you can bet your bottom dollar the filly will be fully vetted by the BHA beforehand – and there has been some early confidence behind her in the market, as she is now 20s in a place and a general 16s.
If you can get that 20s, four places (I can’t….), she is probably a fair each-way bet, for all she has a question to answer after Ascot. Not a race for me really, though.
I’ve no issue with Lady Iman being favourite for this, as the step down to 5f again, after her [8/15] defeat over 6f in a Group 2 last time, should suit.
But I am struggling to get her anywhere near the across-the-board [6/4] in this dead eight myself.
Sure, she should be favourite but [6/4] looks plenty skinny enough, especially as she carries a 3lb penalty for her Group 3 win. She is now [9/5] with AKBets as at 10.15am.
I can fully see why the 16s was taken about Argentine Tango on Monday though as, although perhaps the least sexy in here after six starts, she arguably brings about the best form and time credentials to the table and that was an attractive each-way option.
Certainly, her last two runs – a Listed win and a Group 2 third over 6f – were her best efforts yet, and she shapes as though the step back down to 5f will be a plus.
Her draw in one, widest from the rail, is an obvious ballache though, and that puts me off at 12s.
Just seven runners has killed betting on this race, stone dead.
I wouldn’t like to lay [4/11] about Field Of Gold myself, and you are effectively playing for one place if betting each way ¼ 1,2 against him.
Rosallion and Henri Matisse are the obvious candidates for second spot and are priced accordingly at [11/2} and 7s.
No need to force a bet, then.
Just watch.
But if you need an interest, then you have the betting without markets to consider.
Oddschecker don’t put up these markets up any more , so you’ll have to trawl from site to site to get the best odds on your fancy.
Maybe Carl Spackler, a 33s poke outright, could be the one to chase the favourite home but it is not a race I am betting in.
I’ve said that a few times this week already.
AKBets are currently 2/5 Field Of Gold as at 10.15am, who are top price every horse in the race.
I expected Wisper’s price to immediately collapse for this after the horse she beat a length at Windsor two starts ago, Westridge, won the opener here yesterday, pulling a cart.
She was 12s pretty much across the board (and 13.0 on Betfair) before that race, but strangely a lot of bookmakers were slow to cut the 12s after that opener.
I immediately looked at Betfair’s site and someone had wiped that though, with the horse available to back at just [1.27]!
I imagine a bullseye probably was enough to do that at that time of the day, if that.
Wisper has a huge chance in this race then, after a luckless, throw-out run at Southwell last time. And she also had a nightmare passage when a close fifth in this very race last season.
But she is just [11/2] now, and 6s win-only on Betfair, so I’ll have to walk away now.
This 0-105 fillies 1m2f handicap is effectively a 80-95, so it lacks class, if not a competitive element, below Wisper.
Our Golden One initially interested me at 18s but it does appear that she needs plenty of dig these days and my interest in this race gradually fizzled out from there to be honest before latching on to one.
Gavin Cromwell’s Kayhana is the class element in here and she is overpriced at 14s on her narrow Gowran Park defeat last month.
You have to forgive her a poor run in the Kensington Palace last time but she wasn’t ideally drawn in seven there (not that she is in 13 here).
Yes, 14s looks too big, but she actually trades at [30.0] on Betfair as this goes live – again to very little sums, admittedly – so I think she has to drift, in the short-term at least, when the odds-compilers wake up (if they take any notice of the exchange that is).
I’ll back her each-way at 14s or bigger, but I’ll sit tight for now.
Be aware that £40 would make her a 14s chance on Betfair, too.
She is now available (as at 10.15am) at 18/1 in two spots, with 16s, five places, in another.
I’d also give Wonder Star a fair each way shout in this at a general 8s. I have had a little bit on that myself.
I saw this race was named after Alice Keppel and a quick google told me Who Wants To Be A Millionaire winner Judith Keppel is her great, great niece.
It also told me Judith is related to Camilla, a third cousin no less.
That’s some level of filler shite, sorry.
Anyway, I’ve very little interest in this 5f 2yo fillies conditions race, which sees Zelaina in at evens – about [11/8] on the exchange – and Spicy Marg the obvious each way alternative at [11/2].
Another no-bet race in reality though, on another incredibly quiet betting day for me. But she is the bet in here if there is one.
If there were betting ante-post on this race (doubtful) then the balloted-out horses are below.
It’s potential bumper cars over 7f here with a full field of 20.
I had a good look at this race as I was obviously struggling for bets on this card – I make no excuses for that by the way, as if I am not betting, I am not tipping – and the closest I came to a wager was Glenfinnan at 22s and a general 20s.
Michael Dods is swinging into a bit of form and his horse has had a wind op since we last saw him.
If that has perked him up, then he is well treated off 88 now (he was rated 98 after his Sandown win last August) but it’s a guess-up and his midfield draw screams trouble.
It is probably why he is 40+ on Betfair as this goes live. I may try to get a tenner matched at 33s or a touch bigger, for what it is worth.
Which is probably nothing come 5pm!
Good luck today, all.
GOING: Good
Going stick: 7.2 (Wednesday 7.20am)
Soil Moisture 33.2%
Wednesday morning course update: 22mm rain last Saturday and Sunday 0.2mm rain Thursday night. Today looks dry with sunny spells. Showers, potentially heavy, for Thursday. Friday chance of showers. Saturday looks dry. Current weather details from our weather station available here; https://bit.ly/2E6dYhB
Rails: False rail will be in place on the Top and Bottom Bends and on the Straight to 2f leaving a cutaway for Tuesday and Wednesday. The cutaway will move back to 3.5f on Thursday. All remaining false rail will be removed for Friday and Saturday.
Stalls:5f, 6f, 7f, 1m; Centre 1m3f & 1m4f; Outside, Rest; Inside (2m4f Flip Start)
Watering: 5mm irrigation to the Straight on Thursday 5mm to the Field Side on Friday 5mm irrigation Round Course Sunday 3mm irrigation straight Monday morning
Weather: Light showers, if anything, today
4.55pm: Orazio, Wolf of Badenoch, The Fingal Raven, Mister Bluebird, Sea Baaeed, Transparent Perseverants, Redarna, Catalyse Best Rate, Benacre, Wheels of Fire
M D O’Callaghan blinkers 5-60 (since 2021); Luna Mia, 4.20pm
Eve Johnson Houghton cheekpieces 13-140 (2019); Palmeira, 4.20pm
Eve Johnson Houghton blinkers 11-122 (2013); Great Acclaim, 4.55pm
1.20pm: Omni Man (prom – drawn 1), Sing Us A Song (prom – 5), Cape Breton (4), Jupiter Ammon (4), Tuscan Star (7), Mdawi (2)
1.55pm: Bright Thunder (prom – 12), Fair Angellica (14), Jabaara (prom – 4), Saqqara Sands (10), Tabiti (7)
2.30pm: Ameeq (prom – 5), Dickensian (6), Military Code (8), Rogue Supremacy (3), Sands Of Spain (7), Argentine Tango (1)
3.05pm: Qirat (2), Carl Spackler (7), Serengeti (4)
3.45pm: Our Golden One (3), Ashariba (14), Model Yuko (2), Bintjeddah (prom – 9), Bassadanza (7)
Good: Hugo Palmer, Aidan O’Brien, William Haggas (very good), John and Thady Gosden (very good), Roger Varian, Joseph O’Brien (very good with a huge number of recent winners), Simon and Ed Crisford, Charlie Appleby, Karl Burke, Ralph Beckett
Fair: Richard Hughes, Andrew Balding, Richard Hannon, Eve Johnson Houghton (another big winner on Tuesday ), Charlie Johnston, Alan King, David O’Meara, Kevin Ryan, James Tate (winnerless though), John Gallagher, Emma Lavelle, Ger Lyons, David Simcock, Tim Easterby (four winners on Tuesday), Gavin Cromwell, Tom Ward, Kevin Thomas Coleman, George Boughey
Moderate: David Menuisier, Harry Eustace
Not sure: C and Y Lerner, Ciaron Maher
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