Wednesday’s Racing Tips – Wisper is the dark horse for Day 2 of Glorious Goodwood

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Day one of the Glorious Goodwood festival was shambolic for both myself and Rizz.

Electrolyte didn't see out the trip as well as I expected he would. English Oak gave it a good go in his first attempt at higher-grade racing but ultimately wasn't good enough on the day. The eventual winner Audience bounced back to form and never looked like losing.

Gregory ran a much better race than he did at Royal Ascot but missed a place by small margins to his stablemate. Kyprios showed he was by far the best staying horse in training, breaking the Goodwood track record over 2m by three seconds. Rizzel's other horse was strongly fancied in the betting all day, being backed in from 20/1 to 8/1 but didn't manage to land a blow in a race that saw two of the heavy hitters not run, with one staying in the stalls and the other being removed before the raced started.

Cairnzy's Tips

Aesterius 15/8 – Goodwood 3.00

The Watham Racing team let the thread down yesterday, with three of our four selections being owned by the powerful owners. I'm keeping the faith with them on day two in the hope they can repay us with the exciting and upcoming Aesterius.

Aesterius has a bit to go in terms of repaying his expensive price tag of £380,000, but he's certainly on the right path in doing so and he can make it three wins from his last four runs when hopefully landing this Group 3 contest. I had this lad straight in my tracker when he won cosily on debut at Bath by just under 3L.

Connections didn't mess around with him next time out and he was thrown straight into the Group 2 Norfolk Stakes at Royal Ascot, a race that was won by a fellow Watham Racing runner Shareholder. My selection ran well in defeat in that Group 2 contest, finishing in fifth place and only one and a half lengths of the winner in what was a bunched finish in the end. The form of the Royal Ascot run reads quite well, Aesterius was only one position behind Aiden O'Brien's Whistlejacket who has since gone on to win a Group 2 at Newmarket a couple of weeks ago. Aesterius returned to winning ways in his most recent outing when a drop into Listed company saw him prevail by one and a quarter lengths to the Hugo Palmer trained It Aint Two.

Henry Longfellow 6/4 – Goodwood 3.35

This is a cracking race and the one in which I'm looking forward to the most. The original favourite for this race was Rosalion, but that one is now a non-runner due to a respiratory infection. With Rosalion now out of the race, I'm finding it hard to look past Henry Longfellow and Notable Speech. If Notable Speech can somehow bounce back and find his 2000 Guineas form, then you'd have to say he would have a massive chance here. With that said, he was rather disappointing last time out, whereas Henry Longfellow was the opposite and improved massively.

Both Henry Longfellow and Notable Speech were behind Rosalion at Royal Ascot and the form of that contest is my main reason on choosing the O'Brien runner over Notable Speech. Henry Longfellow was only nabbed late on to lose by a length, while Notable Speech was around 6L behind the pair in seventh place. The O'Brien and Moore combo won this race last year with Paddington and If Henry Longfellow repeats the form of his Royal Ascot run, then I can't see Notable Speech reversing the form.

From the remainder of the field, Maljoom is interesting and brings some good Group form to the table with a third-place effort in the Queen Anne Stakes. Maljoom opened up at 20s and is now into 8s but with only 2 places on offer due to Rosalion being withdrawn, the each-way angle is now gone, and the price probably shortened a lot due to the withdrawal anyway. Regardless, Maljoom would be the clear value play if you fancy taking on the two at the head of the market.

Rizzel's Tips

Kathmandu 7/2 – Goodwood 2.25

The Group 3 for Fillies and Mares over 7f is an interesting race as we get to see whether the 3-year-olds are any good against a few decent older horses. I do think that the younger horses are the ones to focus on, and I've latched onto Brian Meehan's horse ridden by Sean Levey.

It's probably up for debate about which horse has the best form, but for me I think Kathmandu has the best form in this race. She was behind Pretty Crystal on her seasonal reappearance at Newmarket, but it seems that the Richard Fahey horse was primed for that race when the others in behind weren't, and since then Kathmandu has improved massively. Brian Meehan's horse has since finished second in a French Group 1, losing by a head, and has then finished fifth against the boys in the Prix Jean Prat Group 1 over 7f. Her effort against the fillies over a mile was a tremendous effort, and she wasn't fancied in the market at all when losing by small margins as she went off at 45/1. Sean Levey was very positive on her that day at Longchamp from a low draw and I think they will opt for similar tactics in today's race as she is drawn in stall 2.

She was very tenacious when leading at Longchamp, and given how hard it can be to come from off the pace at Goodwood, I think the front running tactics for Kathmandu would be perfect as she is a little terrier who keeps battling and was only outstayed by a F-H Graffard filly who has improved from two to three, but didn't fire at Royal Ascot. Kathmandu has shown at the top level against her own sex she can compete and even against the boys, which is a lot tougher task, she ran a creditable race to finish 3.5L behind the winner, and that for me is the best form in the race.

Wisper 12/1 – Goodwood 4.10 (Each Way)

The punters and bookies are latching onto the lightly raced and unexposed fillies for this race, which is normally the right angle to go for as improvement is still to come from them, but I'm not so sure about their form. Instead, I've latched onto the oldest mare in the race.

If you are following me with backing Wisper you'll want to be covering your eyes as this is more than likely going to be a very ice-cold type of ride by Kieran Shoemark if he is going to follow the trend with this horse on his first time riding the Marcus Tregoning mare. Wisper is always held up at the back of her races, which is definitely not ideal at a track like Goodwood, but it should mean that Kieran will be able to pull her wide (I hope) and get a clear run down the outside, as going for the inside when the cutaway appears can be a death trap. At the time, I thought her form of his second-placed effort behind Andaleep at Windsor wasn't form worth following, but the winner has since finished a very close second at the most recent Racing League meeting and probably should've won if he got the rub of the green. Wisper isn't exactly the most well-handicapped horse in the world, but I do think today's track will suit her and the return to running against her own sex will be a massive help. She is 2/3 when running against her own sex in handicaps, and the only defeat came after a 208-day break, and she finished second when carrying 10st 2lbs and conceding 25lbs to the winner, so it was still a huge effort.

It's a shame that her usual rider of Wisper, Dougie Costello, isn't on board her as he gets on with her very well but he is on the sidelines at the moment after incurring a third breach of the whip rule, so that is the reason why Kieran is on board.

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