The Betfair Cup produced an upset on Tuesday, as Marcus Tregoning’s Finjaan pulled off a sensational run to easily beat market favourites Main Aim and JJ The Jet Plane.

In the end none of the three market favourites, Main Aim, JJ The Jet Plane or Ouqba finished in the places. Balthazaar’s Gift finished the race second, while Regal Parade made it home in third place.

The result was welcomed by Tregoning, who has only recently recovered from a viral outbreak at his stables that kept his top runners out of group races for several weeks and contributed to Finjaan’s poor performance in the 2,000 Guineas.

“It’s been worse than a nightmare this season, but I’m lucky I’ve got such patient owners like Sheikh Hamdan,” Tregoning told the Racing Post after the win.

“It’s been very difficult since May, we had the virus and it took a while to get over it. This horse is so relaxed and so settled, he’s had a nice time today so hopefully he can go on.”

With Royal Ascot a distant memory, this week’s Glorious Goodwood meeting provides the top trainers in Britain and Ireland with this season’s final opportunity to reap the spoils in a top class British race meeting.

Five days of racing get underway on the 28th of July, with tens of thousands of racing fans expected to make the journey to the scenic Sussex Downs to witness the spectacle of a selection of Europe’s most talented thoroughbred racehorses in action.

Focus on the Feature Races
Glorious Goodwood is headlined by five fantastic feature races, including two group one events. Wednesday’s Sussex Stakes provides something of a class reunion for racehorses with Guineas pedigree, with 1,000 Guineas winner, Ghanaati, favoured to score a rare win for fillies in this race.

Friday features the meeting’s second group one race, the Nassau Stakes. This year’s fillies race is top class renewal that features several group one winners, including 2008 Oaks champion, Look Here, 2008 Coronation Stakes champion, Lush Lashes, and this season’s standout filly, Sariska, running over a mile.

The action doesn’t stop with the group one races. The Goodwood Cup, totesport Mile, Stewards Cup and Richmond Stakes are all recognized as top quality races, and punters can expect to see dozens of high quality thoroughbreds in action in these races during the course of the week.

Glorious Goodwood Betting
Antepost fixed-odds markets for the feature races at Glorious Goodwood have been available at odds comparison services since the begging of the month, allowing punters to access early prices for the event.
Betting exchanges like Betfair have been leading the charge, offering access to excellent value as well as the opportunity to lay the favourites for the Glorious Goodwood feature races.

Punters prepared to wait until race day will have access to a variety of different fixed-odds markets at top UK bookmakers like Bet365 and Paddy Power.

About Glorious Goodwood Betting
The Glorious Goodwood Betting site provides a comprehensive guide to one of England’s flat racing highlights. Along with a guide to Goodwood Racecourse and several useful Glorious Goodwood betting resources, the Glorious Goodwood site provides previews of each of the feature races, the latest results and frequent news updates.

Today’s feature race highlight at the 2009 Glorious Goodwood meeting comes in the form of the group two Betfair Cup, a 7 furlong sprint featuring a selection of the season’s top 3 year old sprinters.

Punters around the UK have backed Sir Michael Stoute’s Main Aim into the favourite position in the race. His price is based on a second place finish in the July Cup earlier this month, and it may be worth keeping in mind that he hasn’t won a group one sprint this season.

South African sprinter, JJ the Jet Plane, is priced second in the Betfair Cup betting markets at an average price of 3/1. This looks like excellent value for this colt, given that he’s taking the step up to his preferred distance of 7 furlongs after finishing 3rd in the 6 furlong July Cup.

Barry Hills’ Ouqba looks to be the value bet in the field. At 5/1 he’s the only short-priced entry coming into the race on the back of a win and he looked all class when he took a ½ length victory in the Jersey Stakes at Ascot in June. With that win coming over 7 furlongs, Ouqba can’t be ignored as an each-way betting option.

It is, of course, worth remembering that the sprints are the hardest races to call. So we’re keeping our bets small, and saving up for the value bets in the longer races, and feel a small tricast on Ouqba, JJ The Jet Plane and Main Aim looks to be the bet of the day. For best prices visit our excellent odds comparison service.

Richard Hannon is hoping to land one of Glorious Goodwood’s most important sprint races this week when he runs Monsieur Chevalier in the Richmond Stakes.

Questions were raised about Monsieur Chevalier’s ability when he failed to score in the Norfolk Stakes during the Royal Ascot Meeting. However, the colt has enjoyed a timely return to form, winning the 5 furlong Weatherbys Super Sprint at Newbury on the weekend.

The win was the product of precise timing by winning jockey, Richard Hughes, who moved Monsieur Chevalier from well off the pace and into the lead over the final two furlongs of the race.

“Hughesie was adamant that he got the tactics wrong at Ascot and that he would be eight lengths off them after three furlongs,” Hannon said on his website. “But when I saw that he was more like 12 or 15 lengths adrift of the leaders I thought that we were in big trouble on Saturday.”

“However, Monsieur Chevalier showed us yet again what a decent horse he is, and we’ll definitely step him up to six furlongs now, with the Richmond Stakes at Goodwood and the Gimcrack at York very much on the agenda.”

Richard Hannon’s Paco Boy has been confirmed as an entry for this week’s Sussex Stakes at the Glorious Goodwood meeting.

Paco Boy achieved a feature race win at this year’s Royal meeting, winning the 1 mile Queen Anne Stakes, and Hannon is hoping that he will be able to claim another big group one victory when he returns to a mile in the Sussex Stakes.

The colt disappointed at his last outing, coming home fourth in the July Cup. Hannon believes that the 6 furlong trip in the sprint may have contributed to Paco Boy’s poor showing in the race, and is hoping that the 1 mile Sussex Stakes will give him space to improve.

“Paco Boy worked super on Sunday morning and could not be in better shape,” Hannon said on his website. “I have no worries at all about taking on Eclipse runner-up Rip Van Winkle, but Ghanaati is obviously the one we have to beat.”

“Ghanaati looked a very good filly when she won the 1000 Guineas and she confirmed that impression in the Coronation Stakes at Royal Ascot. But they say that you should never fight shy of one horse in a race, so, while we face a monumental task trying to concede 11lb, we will give it our best shot.”

Sir Michael Stoute will head to this week’s Glorious Goodwood festival with one of the biggest race titles of the season in his back pocket.

The Barbadian trainer won one of the season’s richest races, the King George VI and Queen Elizabeth Stakes, with St Leger champion, Conduit, on the weekend.

Stoute’s house looked in excellent order as his horses locked out the places at Ascot, with Tartan Bearer finishing the race second, while Ask secured third place.

“I’ve always loved this race,” said Stoute. “It’s a wonderful race and is very important in the calendar. This hasn’t quite sunk in yet. We’ve been very lucky. We’ve been one-two in the Guineas and one-two in the Breeders’ Cup.”

“We were hoping one of them would win. It’s a great thrill to see them perform to such a high standard. Conduit did seem to improve in the second half of the season last year. That is certainly his best performance this season.”

Following the race Stoute suggested that Conduit will be returning to California later this year to compete in the Breeders Cup. The St Leger champion scored a victory for European horses last season by coming out on top in the Breeders Cup Turf.

Molecomb Stakes winner, Finjaan, is set to make a return to the Glorious Goodwood Festival next week.

The colt, who finished 9th in the 2,000 Guineas in May, will be sent on a shorter trip at Goodwood, with trainer Marcus Tregoning entering him in the 7 furlong Goodwood Cup.

The Goodwood Cup will represent Tregoning’s first major race since his stable was crippled by a low grade viral infection.

“Finjaan is on course for the Betfair Cup and, all things being equal, he will run in it,” Tregoning told reporters.

“We are obviously coming back from a very torrid time in the stable but he’s is in good form - he is healthy and he has been working well - and I am just hoping that he will 100% on song. If he is, then he will run very well.”

Tregoning believes that Finjaan’s disappointing showing at the Guineas was a direct result of the cloud hanging over his stable, and believes that his 3rd place at the group 1 Dewhurst Stakes in October provides a far more accurate indication of his true potential.

“We won’t know if Finjaan is 100% until we get him to a racecourse but I can see from his work that he is in good form and he is well with himself,” Tregoning concluded. “The forecast ground should be perfect for him and I am looking forward to getting him to Goodwood.”

Connections of Gladiatorus have scrapped plans to run the 4-year-old colt in next week’s group 1 Sussex Stakes at the Glorious Goodwood meeting.

Gladiatorus entered the Royal Ascot meeting carrying the mantle of best 4-year-old in the world, and exited the meeting with this mantle in tatters after finishing 6th out of 9 runners in the Queen Anne Stakes.

With the colt having achieved all his best results outside of the United Kingdom, trainer Saeed bin Suroor has made the decision to scrap his horse’s entry in the Sussex Stakes and instead aim him at races abroad.

“We decided Gladiatorus needed more time until his next race,” Godolphin racing manager, Simon Crisford, told the Racing Post. “He is quite likely to run in the Arlington Million but, if he doesn’t travel to the USA, he will be aimed at the Jacques le Marois.”

Sprint star, JJ the Jet Plane, is scheduled to take a step up in distance when he heads to the Glorious Goodwood festival next week.

The Mike de Kock trained colt has failed to live up to expectations as a sprinter, finishing the Golden Jubilee Stakes at Ascot 4th after starting the race as favourite. He then managed a place in the July Cup earlier this month.

De Kock is hoping that adding an extra furlong to the race will help JJ the Jet Plane find his stride and claim a group race in 2009. His target at Goodwood will be the group 2 Betfair Cup.

“He seems to be running on at the finish over six furlongs in the July Cup and we think he should be competitiveover seven furlongs at Goodwood,” de Kock told the Racing Post.

“It’s not a hard seven furlongs and he should be fine. He won over seven furlongs but that was 18 months ago and ever since he been confined to race over five and six furlongs.”

Kevin Prendergast will be sending his filly, Beach Bunny, to the Glorious Goodwood Festival next week after she achieved an impressive second place in the Pretty Polly Stakes at the Curragh in June.

“She’s been knocking on the door, and we’ve been crying a bit since we didn’t get the verdict in the Pretty Polly!” Prendergast told reporters this week. “It was a very close, a short head, and we got carted across the track. If it had happened in England we’d have probably got it.

Bunny Chow would be taking on a top quality field if she ran in the Nassau Stakes, with the race including the likes of double Oaks winner Sariska, as well as Classics winners Look Here and Lush Lashes.

Sariska currently heads the betting in the 2009 Nassau Stakes betting markets at odds of 10/3, followed by Look Here, who has been priced 5/1 to win the 1¼ mile race at Goodwood next week. Bookies have priced Beach Bunny at 16/1 to cause an upset at Goodwood.

“We still have to discuss it but I would say the Nassau is the plan,” Prendergast concluded.