Our long wait for a winner finally ended on Saturday. Our 16/1 NAP Castel Gandolfo made it third time lucky in the Summer Hurdle and on another day, our NB Torivega might have won too. This weekend, the feature race is the King George VI and Queen Elizabeth Stakes at Ascot and at 33/1, Goliath looks far too big.
This French raider is trained by Francis Graffard and news broke this afternoon that not only would his charge definitely be running, he has also booked the brilliant Belgian Christophe Soumillon for the ride.
This fella was last sighted running in the G2 Hardwicke Stakes
at the Royal Meeting over this C&D. He is a free going sort who often
struggles to settle so Graffard was hoping that he would get a strongly run
race, which would enable Goliath to travel a bit more evenly.
Plan Out The Window
However, that plan went out the window after a furlong.
Nobody wanted to set the fractions in front and the race descended into a bit
of a dawdle. Goliath started pulling the arms off Maxime Guyon after a furlong
and he failed to settle for well over a mile.
As they turned for home Guyon was waiting for room, his
mount still seemingly on the bridle, when Ise Of Jura swept down the outside
and scooted clear. Goliath eventually ran on for second and when you consider how
the race unfolded, it was a fine effort by the son of Adlerflug. He had Middle Earth
0.75L behind in third and Continuous even further back in fifth and they are 14/1
and 10/1 respectively here. Goliath is 33s.
Best Yet To Come
Like Graffard, I believe that we won’t see the best of this
horse until he gets a proper end to end gallop. Thankfully, that is what
Auguste Rodin needs too and O’Brien is likely to run at least one pacemaker for
him. This could be the first time that Goliath gets a race run to suit and it’ll
be fascinating to see how he fares if he settles and gets a strong pace to aim
at.
We know he handles the track and while he might prefer a
slight bit of juice in the ground, we know he ran well on fast ground at the
Royal Meeting. He’s already beaten Middle Earth and Continuous in similar conditions, yet he is over
3x the price of the O’Brien horse and 2x the price of Middle Earth.
If Auguste Rodin pitches up in peak condition, he’s the one
to beat but he can throw in the occasional stinker. Even if he does win, there’s still three places on offer and at 33/1, it is worth taking a chance on Goliath each
way.
2024 King George VI & Queen Elizabeth Stakes Tip: Goliath
e/w @ 33/1 (3 places) NAP
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