Glorious Goodwood

With Goodwood now upon us, I’m really looking forward to what’s normally an extremely fun meeting — albeit not an easy one!

It’s definitely one of the toughest tracks to ride, and one where you can win or lose a race in a stride, but I’ve always found that’s the beauty of the place. Apart from the racing, it’s one of the most picturesque and beautiful tracks we have in England. Being run alongside the Duke of Richmond’s other passion — motor racing — it makes for a cracking week.

We’ve got some very exciting horses running this week for Somerville Lodge, with the likes of Lake Forest, Merchant, Castle Cove, High Degree, Godwinson, and Term of Endearment among our best chances in some extremely competitive races.

Alongside my rides for Somerville Lodge, I’ve been very fortunate to pick up some good spares too: Docklands in what looks like the race of the week — the Sussex Stakes; Do Or Do Not, who takes up the new trip of 7f in the Vintage Stakes for Ed Walker; and Big Mojo, who will be trying to back up his huge second in the July Cup, dropping back to 5f in the King George — a race we were lucky enough to win last year with Big Evs for Rachel, Paul, and Mick Appleby’s team.

Drama will be looking to take his form to new heights for Highclere and James Ferguson in the Stewards’ Cup, to hopefully end what will be a great week!