Far side the place to be in Stewards' Cup

The rain finally relented for good at Goodwood on Friday and clerk of the course Seamus Buckley is anticipating the ground will have dried sufficiently to reinstate good to soft back into the going description on Saturday morning.

Officially described as soft, jockeys called the ground “tacky and sticky” on day four as it began to dry out, with the fresh ground on the far rail the place to be.

Buckley said: “As the jockeys are saying, it’s still a little bit tacky but in another 12 hours or so I certainly think it will be back to good to soft in places.”

Horses drawn low look likely to have an advantage in Saturday’s feature race, the Qatar Stewards’ Cup, with Buckley anticipating the runners will shun the stands’ side.

He added: “I think most of the Stewards’ Cup runners will come down the middle to far side. It’s certainly shown on the GoingStick that’s the place to go.”

Milder weather again is forecast for the final day of meeting, with possible highs of 20C.

For the second day running punters came out on top on Friday with three winning favourites and, particularly painful for bookmakers, a treble for Ryan Moore in the first three ITV races.

Paddy Power spokesman Paul Binfield said: “What a difference a couple of days make.

"On Wednesday evening all was well in the bookies’ garden, but at just gone 3pm we were pondering a Ryan Moore six-timer which would have cost the industry tens of millions. Washington DC losing saved the layers a lot of capital.”

Betfred’s Matt Hulmes, painting a similar picture, said: “Washington DC was a huge result for us after Master The World winning the Betfred Mile.

"Having said that Battaash was well backed ante-post in the King George Stakes, so it wasn’t a good result but it could have been a lot worse.”

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