There were plenty of upsets yesterday at Glorious Goodwood with punters licking their wounds after the opening day of the meeting. It might not be any kinder for favourite backers on day two and Secret Adviser carries a few negatives that may mean he is worth taking on in the 14:25 handicap.
Although the Godolphin entrant looks the right favourite, the step-back down in trip from his Royal Ascot performance may not be ideal. There is also the prospect of quite a testing surface to contend with and he has only raced on a sound surface previously. The combination of these factors plus his wide draw means he looks very opposable at the prices.
Admittedly, ON TO VICTORY is drawn alongside the favourite, but in stark contrast, has thrived on softer conditions with both his successes this season coming with cut underfoot, and both by relatively wide-winning margins.
His last run was under a huge penalty off the back of an 8l success at Salisbury (over a subsequent winner), where he didn’t really get the run of the race on particularly quick ground at Newbury.
He still finished well, and a good half-a-length third when giving away 12lbs to the winner, and a return to a softer surface can see him resume his progress in what has already been a consistent and progressive campaign for the three-year-old Rock Of Gibraltor gelding.
He looks to have plenty of stamina, and a turn-of-foot, so should be suited by the stronger gallop.
The pace is likely to be set by Sofia’s Rock, who may not be able to dominate from the front as he normally prefers to do, and that could set the race up for those in search of a test like On The Victory.
The strong pace could also set things up nicely for the horse entered and racing at the bottom-of-the-handicap, GALACTIC PRINCE, who has already demonstrated a love for the track at Goodwood with one victory and one place in his two sole starts on the Downs.
He comes in to this race off a lowly mark of 80 – effectively 4lbs out-of-the-handicap – but he and his yard are in fantastic form of late, and he looks like a horse that has plenty of scope to improve from his official rating.
If you watch his runs this season, he has generally cruised in to his races and more often than not, travelled like the best horse so he looks ideally suited by this bigger handicap contest.
He has also tended to do his best work at the end of his races, and I can see him romping home at the end of this with his massive weight advantage aiding his cause.
There are also no concerns over the ground having won over soft and fast ground during his nascent career.
The rain set to arrive on Wednesday may rule a few out of this, but with his featherweight, and with Jimmy Quinn booked, he really does catch-the-eye from a punting perspective considering he is trading at double-digit odds and races from a low berth.
Galactic Prince has also got an extremely strong pedigree being by Dubawi and out of a dam that had Galileo as sire, so he should continue to progress at this age.
An each-way bet seems appropriate given the required improvement in form, albeit he did race with plenty of credit at this handicap level a fortnight ago at Ascot when going down to the fairly talented Ben Battuta, and we expect him to go well once again.
1pt win On To Victory @7/1, 14:25 Goodwood, Wednesday (Paddy Power)
0.75pts each-way Galactic Prince @12/1, 14:25 Goodwood, Wednesday (1,2,3,4 at 1/5 odds Paddy Power)
Leave a comment