1,000 Guineas winner, Ghanaati, is set to make an appearance at the Glorious Goodwood Festival next week after trainer Barry Hills confirmed that she’d be running in the Sussex Stakes, one of the two group one races at the meeting.

Ghanaati came out of a training run at Newbury Racecourse this weekend with full marks, and her connections are confident that she can show the form that saw her take the 1,000 Guineas and Coronation Stakes earlier this year.

“She went through the motions at Newbury. Richard rode her and we were all very happy with her,” assistant trainer Charlie Hills told the Press Association. “She’s in very good form and it’s the Sussex Stakes next week. She’s come out of Ascot very well and has done nothing wrong.”

The filly is best priced in the Glorious Goodwood antepost betting markets, ahead of a crop of classy colts that includes the likes of Rip Van Winkle, Delegator and Paco Boy.

Halfway to Heaven handed Aidan O’Brien his 17th group one win of the season on Saturday, defeating a star-studded field to take the 2008 Nassau Stakes.

Johnny Murtagh will claim a lot of the credit for the 1,000 Guineas winners excellent result, while Lush Lashes was unlucky to be forced into 2nd place in a race she should have won. Teddy Grimthorpe’s Passage of Time finished an impressive third.

 ”I thought it might be tactical” Murtagh said after riding his third feature race winner at the 2008 Goodwood fetsival. “Aidan said she is very straightforward and to bounce her out. There is no point complicating it. We were going nice and steady and I knew I was in the right place.”

While Bolger would have been disappointed by the way Kevin Manning rode Lush Lashes, he refused to blame his jockey for losing him a group one title, telling reporters: “These things happen. Kevin gave an accurate assessment of what happened and I’m not in the blame game, I leave that to others.”

“I’m not sure where we will go now,” Bolger added. “She (Lush Lashes) is in the Yorkshire Oaks and we’ll have a look at that, and there is also Leopardstown. There will be plenty of good days left.”
 

Aidan O’Brien scored another major victory at the Goodwood festival yesterday when Yeats secured his second consecutive Goodwood Cup title, ridden by Johnny Murtagh. The win was Johnny Murtagh and Aidan O’Brien’s fifth of the 2008 Goodwood Festival

Yeats won the race in emphatic fashion, coming home seven lengths clear of the field, trailing two 33-1 outsiders. Yeats’ victory pushed his career prize money over the £1 million mark and saw him installed as a popular selection in the Melbourne Cup betting markets.

“He’s a great horse and a true warrior,” Murtagh said after the race. “He was a little fresh at Ascot and today was much better. He’s got a very high cruising speed - when he gets into top gear he can maintain it constantly. He’s truly a great stayer.”

Tungsten Strike led the race in the early stages, but couldn’t maintain the pace as Yeats surged into the lead 6 furlongs out. Darryl Holland’s runner was forced to settle for second place, while Sagara came home in third place.

“He often does more than that on the gallops,” Murtagh continued. “When he hit top gear at the two-furlong marker, he picked up the leader in a matter of strides. He is better than any stayer I’ve ridden in that he just has that bit of class.”

Aidan O’Brien’s Henrythenavigator continued his brilliant run of form at the 2008 Glorious Goodwood festival yesterday, trouncing a field of hopefuls to take the Group One Sussex Stakes.

Henrythenavigator raced into the lead over the first furlong, and won the race by several lengths despite some good running over the last furlong by Jimmy Fortune on Raven’s Pass.

Henrythenavigator adds the Sussex Stakes to an impressive title collection for the season, with the 2,000 Guineas and Irish 2,000 Guineas already to his name. His win presented Aidan O’Brien with his 16th Group One race win of the season.

Johnny Murtagh, who has partnered Henrythenavigator in all of his big wins, told Channel 4 Racing: “The good ones have everything. They couldn’t go fast enough for him. I had a nice position and when he quickened up he quickened really well - I’d say the time for the last two furlongs would have been exceptional.”

“When I went by the others I went to the rail and I was in front soon enough on him. He sensed Jimmy coming and was up for the battle. He’s a great horse and he won easily at the line. He won’t be beaten this year.”

Paco Boy took the honours in the first big race of the Glorious Goodwood Festival yesterday, winning the Betfair Cup in a thrilling finish. Coming into the race off a 7th place finish in an group two race in France, Richard Hannon’s charge impressed in a tight finish against the impressive Stimulation.

“He would die for you, this horse,” Hughes said to reporters after the race. “Going down I wasn’t happy with the ground, so he’s some brave horse to go through and do it like that today. He has a great turn of foot and would be better over a mile, he was just very unlucky when he ran at that trip in France. Today he relaxed lovely, went the long way round and picked up real good.”

Marcus Tregoning also notched up a win on the first day of the 2008 Glorious Goodwood Fetsival, when his two-year-old Finjaan pipped Bonnie Charlie to the post in the Molecomb Stakes. The race is Finjaan’s first stakes win.

Meanwhile the King Edward VII Stakes runner-up Conduit came good on his short odds in the Gordeon Stakes, winning the race to pay out punters at odds of 2/1. Conduit’s win handed Sir Michael Stoute his first victory at the 2008 Glorious Goodwood Festival.
 

Newmarket trainer Peter Chapple-Hyam is looking to scupper Aidan O’Brien ambitions of winning yet another Group One race with Henrythenavigator in tomorrow’s Sussex Stakes.

Hyam will be entering two strong contenders into the 2008 Sussex Stakes, including Winker Watson and Tariq. Tariq took the Betfair Cup last season, but has been in unremarkable form since his win at Goodwood. Winker Watson’s hopes rest on a promising season in juvenile racing.

Hyman appears to favour Tariq to do the job for him on the Goodwood turf tomorrow, saying on his website: “Tariq could do with a bit of rain. It was probably too fast for him at Ascot last time. But he is in really good form and I am happy with him.”

The trainer was less ebullient about Winker Watson’s prospects in the race, adding: “With Winker, it is more of finding-out mission. I am sure he stays but we want to find out whether he stays it at that level or whether we need to drop down a peg or two. I think he will run well.”

For either of Hyman’s charges to win the race they will have to overcome the impressive turn of speed Henrythenavigator has exhibited at each of his Group One victories this year.

Johnny Murtagh will be hoping to continue his successful partnership with Aidan O’Brien at the 2008 Glorious Goodwood Festival.

The Irish jockey has enjoyed tremendous success riding for the Coolmore Stud and their star trainer this season, riding winners at the 2,000 Guineas, Irish 2,000 Guineas, Royal Ascot, King George VI Stakes, Queen Elizabeth Stakes and the Irish Oaks.

The biggest races Murtagh will be targeting at the 2008 Glorious Goodwood Festival will be the Nassau Stakes, where he will be riding 1,000 Guineas winner Halfway to Heaven, and the Sussex Stakes where he will be riding Guineas and St James’s Palace Stakes winner Herythenavigator.

Murtagh told At The Races: “”We have a very strong team going to Goodwood, Henry is probably the number one, but we have a nice bunch of horses and hopefully it will be a good week.”

Meanwhile Yeats is likely to miss out on a run in the 2008 Goodwood Cup and will be replaced by another Coolmore winner, Honolulu.

Murtagh has partnered O’Brien through a season which is likely to end with the Irish trainer breaking the record for most Group One race wins in a season.

Two times Group One winner Jumbajukiba may be heading to the Glorious Goodwood festival next week if trainer Jessica Harrington feels that the ground is suitable for a run in the Betfair Cup.

“Whether he runs at Goodwood or not depends on the ground,” Harrington told At The Races. “If you could get a few thunderstorms on Sunday and Monday he would travel, but he does want genuine good ground, not fast.”

Jumbajukiba’s achievements this season include winning the Group One Minstrels Stakes at Curragh.

“We were obviously thrilled with his last run and he seems to be getting better,”Harrington continued. “I have dropped him in trip from a mile to seven furlongs and he seems to be very happy running over that trip.”

Meanwhile last season’s finest miler will not be attending the 2008 Glorious Goodwood festival. Godolphin’s Ramonti missed the first half of the season with a hind leg infection, before running fifth at the Royal Ascot meeting.

However, the infection has recurred, ending his hopes of defending the Sussex Stakes.

“All future plans are on hold as we do not know how long this situation will take to resolve,” Godolphin spokesman Simon Crisford told reporters.
 

Aidan O’Brien is aiming his classics winners at the Glorious Goodwood festival starting next week. The star of the event will be Henrythenavigator, entering the Sussex Stakes on the back of victories in the 2,000 Guineas, Irish 2,000 Guineas and the St. James’s Palace Stakes.

O’Brien told At The Races: “Henry is a very classy horse. He is going through lead horses like they are going out of fashion. He takes his work so well and he enjoys his work and likes to have a a good companion, but it is difficult to find one to match strides with him.”

Another classic winner fielded by O’Brien at the Glorious Goodwood festival will be Irish 1,000 Guineas winner Halfway to Heaven, who has been entered into the Group One Nassau Stakes.

“Halfway To Heaven needed a little break after the Curragh,” O’Brien continued. “She’s been in good form since and building up. She’ll be running over a mile and a quarter for the first time and you never now what is going to happen so it will be interesting to see, but we’ve been very happy with her.”