3 minute read
The stayers were on show on day three at Goodwood but day four is for the speedsters, with the highlight being the Group 2 King George Stakes over 1005m.
To say the mad five-furlong dash looks tricky is an understatement. It's straight out tough.
Muthmir heads the betting but after coming up narrowly short in an ordinary Kings Stand (time was sluggish and 14 subsequent runners from the race have yielded zero winners) he was well beaten in the July Cup putting up a performance well short of what might have been expected.
Moviesta ran a good race in Ireland last time but he's out to a gentleman's 728 days and 11 runs without a win... hardly inspiring stuff.
Cotai Glory won the Molecomb at this meeting last year and his return run at York was promising. He rates well and should go close, as should the winner on that occasion Out Do who looks a much improved horse in 2015.
The late blooming sprinter is not uncommon in the O'Meara stable and further evidence of that comes with Move In Time who improved on joining the stable for 2013 and went on improving through 2014 to ultimately land Group 1 success at start number 40 as a six-year-old.
He might not be done with just yet either, his first run for 2015 a good win at Hamilton that showed him back as well as ever, if not better.
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Things are more clear cut in the opening race on the card with Prince Of Wales-fourth The Corsican out to back that peak performance up.
He was the fastest finisher in a steadily run Prince Of Wales, Timeform's sectional analysis pointing to him being as good, if not slightly better, than the third placed Western Hymn on the day, and this Group 3 should be well within his range.
Prices around the $3.00 mark look more than fair about a horse with a clear cut favourites chance.
The danger is Luca Cumani's Connecticut who is on an upward spiral of his own and looked right up to this level when winning by as far as the eye can see at his first run of 2015.
How good could he be? Hard to tell; the figures there were solid, but he's a ways behind The Corsican in terms of exposed form and will have to make a leap to knock him off tonight.
If we are in the mood for cracking into market leaders we can keep the ball rolling in the second.
Racing And Sports Ratings put Latharnach at $1.80 in the Group 3 mile contest after he ran a strong second to the Guineas winner Gleneagles in the St James' Palace at Royal Ascot last time.
That was only one of two races on the round course for the day - and the other was a hurdlers' flat - so it's hard to make confident statements about the value of the time but it looked a strong performance against the clock and we know the value of Gleneagles from his fast win in the Guineas at Newmarket.
We've also seen the third placed Consort come out and back up his performance there with another very smart placing at Newbury. Again, the clock was kind.
It's hard not to take a positive view of Latharnach's performance there and as was the case in the opener it's a piece of form that makes him a well deserved favourite.
Another similarity to the opener is that the danger is completely untapped.
Convey hasn't been seen since gapping a maiden field at Kempton back in October last year. He's clearly talented, but this is clearly a tougher task. Like the first, we prefer the proven form, but it adds some spice to what should be an interesting race.
