Glorious Goodwood Day 4: Top Irish Contenders to Watch

Glorious Goodwood continues with Friday’s Day 4 card and there are three Irish raiders to look out for across two of the seven races.

Mordor heads the market in the opening handicap over an extended 2m4f, whilst She’s Quality and Town And Country represent Ireland in the Group 2 George Stakes.

We’re going to assess the chances of all three runners and Jack Davison’s runner could be the one to watch on Friday.

Mordor - Coral Goodwood Handicap

Gordon Elliott is used to having winners in Britain, but more so at Cheltenham than Goodwood. There’s £75,000 on offer for this Class 2 handicap over an extended 2m4f and Elliott’s Mordor is very prominent in the betting.

He was eighth behind stablemate Woodhooh in the Martin Pipe at Cheltenham on his last start over hurdles and the trip should be fine on that evidence. Winning well on the Flat at Killarney in May, that was his second success in just six starts in this sphere.

Elliott’s five-year-old looked outpaced at multiple stages when 10th at the Curragh last time out and perhaps this marathon trip will suit. Jamie Spencer has been booked for the ride and you would imagine the plan is to leave his challenge until as late as possible.

She’s Quality - King George Qatar Stakes (Group 2)

Jack Davison’s She’s Quality is a talented filly, albeit with a knack of finding one too good in her races. She won a Listed contest at Tipperary by three lengths back in September and announced herself as an improving sprinter.

All three starts this season have come in Britain and she ran well to finish second to Rumstar in the Palace House Stakes at Newmarket first time up.

Following that up with another good run in the Group 2 Temple Stakes at Haydock, she has proven herself to be competitive in this grade.

Rumstar got the better of her once again at Sandown earlier this month and connections will be delighted that he doesn’t run here. Perhaps vulnerable from a win point of view, it wouldn’t be a surprise if she ends up making the frame.

Town And Country - King George Qatar Stakes (Group 2)

You probably wouldn’t expect the man who has trained the winner of all four Championship races at the Cheltenham Festival to have a runner in arguably the fastest 5f race in Britain but Henry de Bromhead runs Town And Country in the feature Group 2 on the card.

The three-year-old has been very consistent so far this season, finishing runner-up in her first couple of starts, which includes a neck second to First Instinct in a Listed race at Cork over an extended 5f back in May. Babouche was back in fourth that day and she has won a Group 3 since, providing a very strong boost to the form.

It’s likely that the best is yet to come from this very lightly raced filly but she probably needs to step forward significantly in order to feature.

She returned to winning ways with a very game performance in Listed company at Sandown most recently, where she overcame a slow start to score by a short head. A quicker start will be required here, although it remains to be seen if she’s good enough to compete at this level.