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One of the midsummer highlights of the British horse racing calendar begins on Tuesday, 30 July as the Qatar Goodwood Festival gets underway in Chichester.
Affectionately known as ‘Glorious Goodwood’, the world-famous festival brings plenty of festivities alongside top quality flat racing, with highlights including Goodwood Cup Day, Sussex Stakes Day and Ladies’ Day across the Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday.
37 races take place over the five-day festival, with the undoubted highlights including the Sussex Stakes (with over £1m in prize money on offer) and both the Goodwood Cup and the Nassau Stakes (with £500,000 and £600,000 on offer respectively).
There promises to be plenty of drama across all three races, and with heavy favourites among both new bookmakers and established betting sites in the Goodwood Cup and the Sussex Stakes, could there be surprises further down the field?
Kyprios, Rosallion and Opera Singer make up the early betting favourites for each race, but with plenty of time to go ahead of the first races of the week, there might be some surprising value across each racecard.
Glorious Goodwood betting tips
- Stewards Cup betting tip: Albasheer each way – 12/1 Bet365
- Sussex Stakes betting tip: Henry Longfellow to win – 7/2 William Hill
- Nassau Stakes betting tip: Opera Singer to win – 6/4 Betfred
Goodwood Cup betting tip
(3 .35pm Saturday)
Albasheer may have come second in the Services Heritage Handicap at Ascot earlier this month, but it is a race he should really have won fairly comfortably.
Despite some more mixed results before that race – including winning a Newcastle handicap off 105 in March and an 18th-placed finish at the Newcastle Open Now Chipchase Stakes in late June – he tends to perform well in big fields with quick ground, and that should be what he finds on Saturday.
He is priced around 12/1 among horse racing bookmakers, though with some offerings as low as 10/1, it’s clear that those odds will fall as the race approaches. In any case, he will be a good shout to finish among the top three.
Glorious Goodwood prediction 1: Albasheer (each-way) @ 12/1 Bet365
Sussex Stakes betting tip
(3.35pm Wednesday)
The three-year-old’s early form across three races at Curragh was promising, coming away with three wins in 2023. But a break of almost a year followed, returning to finish eighth in Longchamp last May.
He entered the Group 1 St James’s Palace Stakes at Ascot last month and finished second to Wednesday’s favourite Rosallion, though the steady improvement shown indicates he is capable of reversing that result in Sussex.
He has already fallen from 5/1 on some betting sites – with his rival falling from 9/2 to 5/6 – though expect these odds to fall further as raceday approaches.
Glorious Goodwood prediction 2: Henry Longfellow @ 7/2 William Hill
Nassau Stakes betting tip
(3.35pm Thursday)
A short injury break for Opera Singer ended in late May at the Irish 1,000 Guineas in Curragh, with a third-place finish a promising return.
She followed this up with second at the Coronation Stakes at Ascot last time out, with jockey Ryan Moore seemingly on the cusp of getting a result out of her if the improvement in form continues.
The slight step up in trip should suit Opera Singer, and she remains favourite with several betting apps, though she will face tough competition from Emily Upjohn and the rest of a fairly open field.
Glorious Goodwood prediction 3: Opera Singer @ 6/4 Betfred
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