A year on since his triumph in the race last season, BIG ORANGE looks to have a big chance of repeating the trick in the two-mile Goodwood Cup after warming up in fine style by beating the classy The Grey Gatsby in the Princess Of Wales’s Stakes at Newmarket’s July meeting.
He took the same route last year too and there’s every reason to believe he’s improved since.
He get his name from his massive size, and his trainer Michael Bell reckons he’s a full 10kg heavier this year and has simply taken his time to fill his big orange frame.
The form book certainly backs that opinion with an excellent placed effort in Dubai on World Cup night – and with the fast ground firmly in his favour there don’t appear to be many negatives.
The O’Brien trained three-year-old Sword Fighter could be a big threat, but his age group have a dire record in the race with no wins in the last 15 years and this might come too early for him.
There aren’t too many likely improvers as the average age in the race is quite high and Big Orange himself is towards the younger end.
The biggest negative is his draw in stall nine is worse than last year (1), and the horse that chased him home last year, Quest For More, has been given a far more favourable draw this time in stall two and is very likely to make the running from there.
He ranks a big threat as, had the two raced in this year’s stalls last year, you suspect the result might have been reversed.
At 8/1 Quest For More is very appealing each-way as he appears in pretty good nick having placed twice over a mile-and-a-half this season at York.
However I’m firmly of the belief Big Orange is a better horse this season and very much the one to be on.
In a race as competitive as this it’ll be worth waiting for the best morning price at around 10am.
1.5pt win Big Orange @4/1 or best morning price, 15:10 Goodwood, Thursday
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