By Ed Culham
BIG-PRICED handicap winners have been a regular occurrence during this year’s Flat season from start to finish.
Rebel Territory in the Victoria Cup, Saint Lawrence in the Wokingham Stakes, and Baradar in the International Stakes on Saturday prove the point.
However, sometimes a favourite has such an obvious claim that they can’t be ignored, and that is exactly what AMLETO looks to have in the Coral Handicap (1.50pm).
Currently priced at a general 9/4, the William Haggas-trained three-year-old is a full brother to former Somerville Lodge inmate Sea Of Class who nearly chased down Enable in the 2018 Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe for the same connections of Sunderland Holding Inc.
By Sea The Stars, he is also a half-brother to the 2022 Irish Cesarewitch winner Waterville, so it seems like the thrice-raced gelding hails from a prodigious family for a horse rated as low as 89 after three runs.
With a big influx of rain set to hit Goodwood ahead of racing on Wednesday, Amleto will have no problem with any give in the going based on his soft ground victory at Chester in May to beat Paddy The Squire, a horse who won at Ayr on Monday.
With the World Pool in operation for the first three days of the Glorious meeting, playing him in a Quinella alongside two other horses should be a solid bet.
The first of which is WESTERTON for Alan King who has shown plenty of guts in his four starts this season and should handle the step up in trip well, while the second is the proven stayer STRUTH who relishes slower surfaces, as shown by his third on good-to-soft last time out and win on soft at Chester in May.
POINTERS
Amleto 1.50pm Goodwood
Amleto, Struth, Westerton
(World Pool Quinella) 1.50pm Goodwood
