If Goodwood is quirky then this race is "mad". They start in front of the Stands, run the wrong way down the straight and then take various detours around the Sussex Downs, including some significant gradient changes, before arriving back where they started. The nature of the course means there is a FLAG start, and as they tend to run "indian file" a good position and start can be vital but danger is they can either go too fast or dawdle, rarely is it truly run with sensible sectionals.

 

The Ascot Stakes will understandably be "the form pointer" many will rely on, absolutely a big factor, but that too was a strange race where 3 who re-oppose today Summer moon / Smart Champion and Rochester House were given too much to do and finished very well. The question for me is, did they really finish well, or was it a case that they could not match early pace and therefore flattered to deceive?. Of them, I would suggest Rochester House had the most valid excuses and is the biggest danger.

 

True Destiny who was 3rd in this in 2019 and Seinesational runner up in the same race are biggest dangers to my selections, but I think the race could throw up a few surprises.

 

The one solid horse in here I really like is THE GRAND VISIR, ideal trip and conditions, super consistent, off a nice mark, hold up (to a point) style in midfield and one i think who can sustain a run from a long way out and emerge at the furlong pole and stay on to victory. 

 

I will split my stakes as Trackers on a pair less fancied by the market in BLUE LAUREATE who had plenty of excuses at Royal Ascot, a horse who could be running in to form now, like Trainer Ian Williams, a touch unexposed and Jason Doyle a notable booking. CLIFFS OF DOONEEN is another who ran well enough at the Royal meeting, will certainly come on for the run and ran a bit keenly there and should be spot on here.