Golden Mile Trends

The Golden Mile is an ultra-competitive Class 2 handicap which takes place on the fourth day, Friday, of the Glorious Goodwood Festival. It often features runners from races such as the Royal Hunt Cup at Royal Ascot and the Coral Challenge at Sandown, and always throws up a classy winner.

This year’s contest is just as competitive as always with the likes of Escobar, Seniority and Fire Brigade heading the market and last year’s winner Master The World looking to defend his crown.

Ryan Moore did the steering for David Elsworth’s charge last year when he managed to get up in an exciting finish having been second the year before and this has all the makings of a great race.

Our Golden Mile tips can give you some help in finding the winner!

To help make sense of this tricky handicap we’ll look at a few important statistics and trends which could prove key in finding the right horse for this.

These are three trends which we feel are important to consider when looking for the winner of this race.

• 8 of the last 10 winners have been drawn in stall 8 or lower
• 8 of the last 10 winners have been rated between 99 and 106
• 7 of the last 10 winners were aged three or four

Trends – Key Runners

Escobar ✅✅✅

South Seas ❌✅✅

Fire Brigade ✅❌✅

Seniority ✅❌✅

Master The World ✅✅❌

A few here tick a couple of the required boxes here but the only horse to come out with a perfect three from three in our trends is the David O’Meara trained Escobar, who was once upon a time viewed as a 2000 Guineas prospect for Hugo Palmer. His career went off the rails a bit at three but he has been better than ever this season and improved on a decent midfield finish in the Hunt Cup to finish second to Tigre Du Terre in the Coral Charge at Sandown. That horse has subsequently been sold to Hong Kong and is very well thought of so the form looks strong enough. He is often held up which can require a good deal of luck on this course but he is progressive and reasonably handicapped so should go close.

Oisin Murphy had a big Group 1 winner in the Sussex Stakes on Lightning Spear so will be full of confidence though will need it to get South Seas home as he is a horse who loves to be held up. He was right out the back in the race that Escobar finished second in and could never get a clear run but stayed on from a long way back to finish a more than respectable sixth. He wasn’t given a hard time that day when his chance to win was gone and there is the nagging suspicion this has been the plan. He was a classy two-year-old who finished second in a Group 1 as well as beating the very useful Salouen in a Group 3.

There is a possibility that Fire Brigade would prefer a bit more cut in the ground as much of his strong form has come with soft in the description but he must have every chance if handling the ground under William Buick who rides this course so well. He was a bit underwhelming in his first three starts of the season but reappeared with a very encouraging run after a wind operation at Newcastle last time and could come on a chunk for that. He would be competitive if doing so off a mark of 97.

The current favourite for this race is the Queen’s Seniority who comes here after a solid eighth in the Royal Hunt Cup. He was beaten just over four lengths that day but had run just a week before at Chelsmford and that race looks likely to work out well as usual. He is up a further two pounds for that but gets the assistance of last year’s winning rider Ryan Moore here and the William Haggas yard is absolutely flying at present. The form of his Chelmsford win has been nicely franked and he should go well even though this is very competitive.

Master The World snuck up the rail under an ice cool Ryan Moore last year off three pounds higher than he races off here and has been running well in some competitive handicaps since then. He is nicely drawn in stall nine but will need some luck in running. This may well be a stronger renewal than the one he won and as the trends suggest, this race often goes to a lesser exposed improver. He’s also drawn in 9 which is a negative.

See all our Glorious Goodwood tips and previews for every race, every day in our dedicated Goodwood page.