A further two duds on Friday to continue the poor Glorious Goodwood Festival.
Zinc White never got going and never looked like winning. No excuses for him as he had his ideal ground and showed that he handled the track on his previous run at Goodwood.
Tribal Chief crawled out of the stalls, and that's something you can't get away with, especially in big field handicaps. He lost multiple lengths at the start and had to use some of his petrol to get back into the group. Despite that, he went through the race nicely, and I still thought he could win from three furlongs out. He took a bit longer to get going than I was hoping, but he did stay on, and then his effort flattened out at the finish. With a normal start, he would've been placed and maybe challenged the winner.
Teed Up 6/1 (1pt EW, 5pl) – Galway 3.12
I've only had one bet at Galway this year, as I don't really rate the festival. It's not your usual racing festival, full of constant Group/Graded races, and the handicaps are always full to the brim. However, with my Lucky 15 bet taking up all a lot of the Goodwood races, I wanted to give a chance to Galway.
The class race of the day at Galway is this Listed handicap hurdle. You can give a shout-out to nearly every horse in the race, and if any horse were to bounce back to form, it wouldn't be a surprise. The Galway Festival is one of the pinnacles for Irish trainers, so readying one up is always on the cards. Few do this better than Emmet Mullins. Emmet has built up a reputation as being one of the best target trainers in Ireland, and that's why his horses are always priced up short when they come over to the UK. He has a few in this race, and I've ended up going for Teed Up, who looks the least likely to win of the ones he trains.
Conor Clarke is on board, taking off 7lbs. Seeing him on this suggests he is at the bottom of the pecking order for Emmet's horses. Based on how last year went for this horse, he has a lot to prove, but he did win on the flat at this meeting earlier in the week. He is a Galway specialist, shown by winning at this track on six occasions. He got his ratings up quite high, and that's probably why he didn't manage to win at this meeting last year, but they managed to get his flat mark down, and that's why he managed to win. He hasn't been seen over hurdles since running in this race last year (finished 11th), and his handicap mark is now 4lbs lower, which is effectively 11lbs lower as the jockey takes off 7lbs.
The owners of Teed Up put a big emphasis on the Galway Festival, and land gambles most years. It looks like the bookies have played it safe, putting Teed Up as one of the favourites.
GambleAware