Friday is Day 4 of Glorious Goodwood 2019, with the main feature of the day being the Unibet Golden Mile Handicap. View Neil Morrice’s full feature race analysis, as well as his best bets on the undercard below.
View Neil Morrice’s video preview of Day 4 at Glorious Goodwood here:
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Unibet Golden Mile Handicap
(Class 2)
The biggest betting heat on the card is often won by a horse with Group potential and with that in mind the one that jumps off the page is MOJITO.
William Haggas’s runner was a well backed scorer on his return from a lengthy absence at Sandown and that defeat of ESCOBAR has been boosted subsequently.
To grab the lead and go all the way from an unfavourable draw after a 637-day absence takes some doing and with this coming just a month after he needs to avoid the ‘bounce’ factor. Breaking from stall 9 he will again have to have Escobar is also ahead of the handicapper and beat in in form Rise Hall after Sandown, form that has also been given a nice franking by the second.
He went off joint favourite for this race 12 months ago but met serious traffic problems before finishing eighth, beaten four lengths. Excuses can be prolific in any Golden Mile, but without the interference Escobar would surely have gone close.
INDEED is another that ticks the majority of boxes and hasn’t looked back since joining Dominic French Davis from France, showing a liking for plenty of cut in the ground.
Coming back from seven months off he chased home Chatez in the Newbury Spring Cup. His subsequent successes at Chelmsford and Newmarket make him a serious player, even though he went up 7lb for that latest defeat of Thrave. Regardless he still remains 4lb well in under a penalty.
Mojito’s stablemate SENIORITY has performed well at this level throughout the season and is a good yardstick although not that well drawn. However, if getting the breaks he can have a say.
The soft ground that AFAAK encountered when winning the Royal Hunt Cup is unlikely to materialise and there might not be much to choose between him, CLON COULIS and VALE OF KENT.
Predicted Finish
9 – 6 – 3 – 8 – 5
1st ESCOBAR (9)
2nd Indeed (6)
3rd Mojito (3)
4th Seniority (8)
5th Clon Coulis (5)
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Goodwood Day 4
Undercard
Race 1 – No 14 JUBILOSO
Trainer: Sir Michael Stoute
Jockey: Ryan Moore
JUBILOSO takes inexperience into this but can prove she’s a Group 1 filly running in a Group 3. Having dotted up on her first two starts, the daughter of Frankel ran a cracker to finish third to Watch Me in the Coronation Stakes at Royal Ascot. This involves a drop back to seven furlongs but she has plenty of natural pace and can soon get into a handy position from her good draw.
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Race 5 – No 7 OWNEY MADDEN
Trainer: Martyn Meade
Jockey: Rob Hornby
After landing some good bets to break his maiden at Newbury, OWNEY MADDEN can now cut the mustard in this red hot handicap. He made a progressive move from the quarter pole to take out his rivals one by one, then fought on bravely to land the spoils. The nagging doubt is that the short head second Written Broadcast ran poorly here earlier in the week.
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Race 6 – No 4 MIRAGE DANCER
Trainer: Sir Michael Stoute
Jockey: Ryan Moore
MIRAGE DANCER has everything going for him in this Group 3 and rates the best bet on the card. Winner of the corresponding race 12 months ago, he is very effective on this undulating course and goes to post a fresh horse, having raced only three times this season but confirming that at his best he’s probably of Group 2 standard which puts him in front of his four foes.
