Today is Ladies’ Day at Goodwood and the meeting has been given new sparkle by the addition of the £600,000 Qatar Nassau Stakes to the card.
The race has produced some titanic battles in the past, most memorably when Ouija Board and Frankie Dettori held off Alexander Goldrun after a 600m head-to-head in 2006.
Frankie Dettori rides So Mi Dar for John Gosden and the Dubawi filly takes on Galileo’s outstanding daughter, Winter. The latter became only the second filly to win the 1000 Guineas, Irish 1000 Guineas and Coronation stakes. She has to prove she stays the extra 400m but her racing style suggests she will and she is the one to beat.
Two other Group races take place on the card, the Qatar Richmond Stakes over 1200m for two-year-olds, and the Markel Insurance Fillies’ Stakes, in which the Gosden team also has a number of interesting contenders.
Drakenstein stallion Duke Of Marmalade’c champion son Big Orange was gallant in defeat when running a gutsy second behind the 3yo Stradivarius in Tuesday’s Gr1 Goodwood Qatar Cup.
Andrea Atzeni – enjoyed a big day
The race was the highlight of Day One of the Glorious Goodwood Festival and Big Orange was on the verge of registering an historic third victory in the 3200m event.
Big Orange adopted his usual front-running tactics under Frankie Dettori and appeared to have all of his rivals in trouble as he went through the 400m, with his giant stride in perpetual motion.
But Andrea Atzeni made full use of his mount’s weight allowance and wore down Big Orange to stay on strongly and grab a great win.
Atzeni was riding a Group-race treble on the afternoon after earlier victories on Expert Eye and Breton Rock. He ended with 4 winners on the afternoon.
A son of Sea The Stars, Stradivarius is the first three-year-old to win this race since 1990 and is now alongside Capri, Aidan O’Brien’s Irish Derby winner, at the head of the Leger betting.
