Equinties - Glorious Goodwood day 3

Gm Equinauts

While Guineas winner NOTABLE SPEECH drifted (punters perhaps remembering his big flop at Royal Ascot), HENRY LONGFELLOW shortened.

But the market got it totally wrong as NOTABLE SPEECH brought back that Guineas magic to a sun-kissed Goodwood by bolting up in the Group 1 Sussex Stakes.

In winning yesterday, Charlie Appleby’s Classic hero became the first horse since FRANKEL to do the Guineas-Sussex Stakes double, and that win almost cemented a good place at stud for him with Godolphin and Darley.

But how did the race play out? Well, HENRY LONGFELLOW was forced to make the pace as there wasn’t much pace elsewhere.

That saw him put in a rather quick fifth furlong and in no time at all, NOTABLE SPEECH, SONNY LISTON, and FACTEUR CHEVAL lined themselves up for a crack at the pace setter.

What is rather remarkable is the sheer pace NOTABLE SPEECH has as his hoof-tips. He was tucked in behind Aidan O’Brien’s sole representative, and when the cutaway opened up, William Buick gave him one shove and he was off.

Two rather tame hits with the whip followed, so Buick didn’t throw the kitchen sink at him, yet he won oh so comfortably comfortably.

Well, despite disappointing at Royal Ascot, he really does have a big aura surrounding him. Such an aura could make the long-awaited third instalment of NOTABLE SPEECH vs ROSALLION ever-so tasty.

Where will it happen? Well, that’s the tricky thing. NOTABLE SPEECH is an ideal type for America and Richard Hannon doesn’t want to take his stable star over to the States, so we could be waiting a while to see them clash once again, if again!

Away from the Group 1 race there were more ‘big’ performances which could eventually lead to the States too.

BIG EVS’ owners could be, remarkably, double-handed at Del Mar later this year after BIG MOJO’s victory in the Group 2 Molecomb Stakes.

Having not been so recognisable 18 months ago, Paul Teasdale now has two Molecombs under his belt having won last year’s race with the aforementioned BIG EVS.

BIG MOJO, however, has a different profile to his Breeders’ Cup-winning stablemate. Last year, BIG EVS came into Goodwood as the 9/4 favourite having won a Listed race at Ascot. By contrast, BIG MOJO was comfortably beaten on debut at Beverley earlier this month. Punters can therefore be forgiven for not immediately forming an attraction to the horse’s profile.

Still, that’s all irrelevant now, and with Mick Appleby thinking he could be as good as BIG EVS, one has to wonder how high he can really climb.

Let’s dive in to day 3 of Glorious Goodwood.

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