Glorious Goodwood: Ballydoyle outsider heads ante-post wagers
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We won’t be witnessing the sun rise over Glorious Goodwood for a couple of weeks yet, if at all the way the weather’s going, but it’s past time to sift through the markets for nuggets of value ahead of the West Sussex spectacle.
Here are our three top value ante-post wagers with just over a fortnight to go.
Of the three trainers who have dominated this race for the past seven seasons, namely last year’s victor David Wachman, the late Henry Cecil and John Gosden, only the latter has entries in this renewal, with the betting dominated by two-time winner Aidan O’Brien.
Minding sets the standard for Ballydoyle at 4/7, having won five of her last six races, but the sole defeat in that run was as odds-on favourite to Adrian Keatley’s Jet Setting, admittedly by a head on soft ground at the Curragh.
On a line of form with Jet Setting, second favourite Alice Springs stands a decent chance of overhauling her stablemate, particularly if the rain keeps coming, after beating Keatley’s inmate since by 2½l on good-to-soft ground at Ascot.
Roger Varian’s four-year-old can be brilliant and not-so-great depending on the day, with a series of big-race blowouts last summer prefacing a 33/1 second less than a length behind Solow at Ascot in October.
Belardo’s career form suggests he likes a bit of give underfoot, so any inclement late-July weather should be no problem for the four-year-old former Dewhurst winner, while a recent victory on good ground at Newbury will have assuaged many fears on that score.
Varian’s charge’s palindromic recent form reads 2-1-4-1-2, so he’s clearly due a win too.
Punters and bookies alike have woefully underrated this nine-year-old’s King George Stakes chances in recent seasons, letting Take Cover go off at 20/1 last year prior to coming second (by a head) behind Muthmir, 12 months on from his 6/1 victory in the Group 2.
If you like horses for courses then the fact that David Griffiths’ inmate has never finished outside the top two in three runs at Goodwood must be manna from heaven, and Take Cover has respectable recent form against the market leaders here. He cannot be ruled out.
All Odds and Markets are correct as of the date of publishing.
