Thursday’s Group 2, £100,000 Goodwood Cup, at two miles, has as its ante-post
favorite the Luca Cumani-trained Mount Athos, whose last outing was at Royal
Ascot, when he finished a staying-on fifth in the Hardwicke Stakes over 1 1/2
miles. That was the Montjeu six-year-old’s second run of the season; his first
brought a nine-length success in the Ormonde Stakes over 13 furlongs at Chester.
On his last run over two miles he finished an excellent fifth in the Melbourne
Cup.
Cumani has never won the Goodwood Cup.
Colour Vision finished third to Saddler’s Rock in last year’s Goodwood Cup
after winning the Ascot Gold Cup. The gray five-year-old has not won since his
Ascot triumph, but ran a solid race behind Estimate in last month’s renewal of
the Royal meeting centerpiece. He is the best-fancied of three Godolphin
representatives in the Goodwood Cup, the others being Cavalryman and Ahzeemah,
who finished first and second over the trip in the Dubai Gold Cup at Meydan in
March.
Godolphin has won two of the last four Goodwood Cups, with Opinion Poll in
2011 and Schiaparelli in 2009.
Colour Vision is vying for second favoritism with Caucus, who beat Cavalryman
over two miles at Newmarket on his last outing of 2012, opened his 2013 campaign
by beating all but Estimate in the Sagaro Stakes, and warmed up for the Goodwood
fixture with a dogged success at Sandown. His trainer, John Gosden, won the
Goodwood Cup 20 years ago with Sonus.
Saddler’s Rock will be bidding to become the 13th horse to win more than one
Goodwood Cup and the 11th to win two in a row, the latest back-to-back winner
being Double Trigger in 1998. However, John Oxx’s charge has not finished in the
first three since last year’s success.
The only other raider is Altano for Germany, a country on the crest of a wave
after Novellist’s triumph at Ascot last Saturday. Like the King George VI &
Queen Elizabeth Stakes winner, Altano is trained by Andreas Wohler, and before
his Gold Cup effort the Galileo seven-year-old had won over two miles at
Hoppegarten.
No German-trained horse has won a Goodwood Cup.