Racing tips: Irish Raider Studio City looks good value against the short-priced favourite

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The first day of the Glorious Goodwood festival yielded no winners from two attempts. Trueshan ran well considering he didn't have his best ground conditions and the fact he pulled like a train until the 3f pole, which left him with not much of a chance as he wouldn't have had much left in the tank. Galeron was fairly horrendous, and they had him sitting closer to the pace than I thought was ideal, but that didn't affect his below-par run.

Goodwood 3:00

There are some decent horses in this with some good form, including a winning tip for the thread with Rocket Rodney who won at Sandown in a Listed race at short odds and is currently the odds-on favourite in this contest. He is the one they all have to beat based on his runner-up finish at Royal Ascot behind Little Big Bear and then his recent win where he beat Eddie's Boy who has since won the big sales race at Newbury.

The one my pin has landed on is the Irish raider, STUDIO CITY from the Michael O'Callaghan yard. My fingers were burnt when backing Michael's flag bearer Twilight Jet in the Coronation Cup, where he ran a total stinker. However, he is known for having a couple of decent 2-year-olds each year, and though the form of this lad isn't the strongest, I think he could be above average and this track could suit him to the ground.

Michael is a shrewd trainer and managed to pick this horse up for £90,000 at the Breeze-Up sales, he was then backed into 15/8F on debut in a Cork Maiden which had a runner from the Ger Lyon's stable as well as Donnacha O'Brien and Paddy Twomey, but the market vibes were very strong for Studio City, which suggested they think a lot of him at home. He didn't quite live up to expectation, finishing fourth of a possible thirteen, and the same kind of applied on his second run where he was fancied again going off at 100/30, this time being beaten by Wodao who has since won a Listed race, so is a good horse.

That still wasn't the best of runs, but it was an improvement. On his most recent start he went off at 2/9F beating horses he should be beating, but the manner in which he did it and showed the speed he has was impressive. He won by 6L and recorded an RPR of 91. That race was won by Alligator Alley in 2019 (was then 2nd in this race at Goodwood) and Geocentric in 2021 who was and is a very good filly with plenty of speed, and is a Class 1 winner, so he could follow in their footsteps and be a good horse.

His trainer won this race back in 2020 on Steel Bull, so he knows what kind of horse is required to win this. Since his most recent win, the Al Shaqab Racing team has acquired him, and Ryan Moore takes the rides, which is the first time ever that he has ridden for Michael O'Callaghan, which is an eye-opener. I just think they think a lot of this horse and though it's taken him three runs to actually show what ability he has, he might've needed the racecourse experience and runs under his belt to get him to that point, and at odds of around 10/1 he looks a good alternative to the favourite.

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