Keith Melrose weighs up three red-hot improvers in the Thoroughbred Stakes

2.15 Goodwood
Bonhams Thoroughbred Stakes (Group 3) | 1m, 3yo | ITV/RTV

Take achievement literally and you might regard the market for the Thoroughbred Stakes to be upside down. Last year's Superlative Stakes winner Mystery Power is available at double figures. Listed winner and Gimcrack third Repartee is even bigger. Meanwhile, none of the top three in the betting have so much as contested a Pattern race and have had just seven runs between them.

Such is the attraction of promise, some might say, but some might not have seen the Britannia Stakes. Finest Sound tanked through that race and smashed 20 unexposed three-year-olds by four lengths. Khaloosy, in turn, smashed him by four and a half.

It was a rare handicap performance, which was made clear in the 17lb rise in Khaloosy's BHA rating that resulted, putting him on a mark of 111. If you were being provocative, you might argue running him in a Group 3 on his next start is a little unambitious.

Tilsit: impressive 19-length winner at Newcastle last monthCredit: John Grossick (racingpost.com/photos)

He will be tested, though, as he meets another of the most progressive three-year-olds around. The guaranteed improver is My Oberon, who was backed into odds on at York last time and won in deeply impressive fashion on ground that, like Khaloosy, was quicker than certain impressions might give. Also like Khaloosy, the clock broadly backs up visual impressions.

Tilsit is less of a known quantity. He is from one of Juddmonte's best families (dam is a half-sister to Kingman) and, after being touched off by Al Salt on debut, he won by 19 lengths at Newcastle last month.

The draw of that yawning margin is not enough to recommend him over the other two, but this race should give a greater guide to his worth.
Race analysis by Keith Melrose

What they say

Roger Varian, trainer of Khaloosy
He won well at Royal Ascot and he's been in good form since, training really well. It's a slightly different test, with a smaller field on a different type of track and with different ground, but he'll hopefully cope with that and put up another good performance.

William Haggas, trainer of My Oberon
This is a big step up in class for him but it's rare you find a Group race with five runners, so it should be a straightforward race in the way it's run. Whether he's good enough is a different thing. He won well at York but it was only a novice race.

Alastair Donald, racing manager to King Power Racing, owners of Mystery Power
He was a good horse last year and it was a very encouraging run last time. It would be nice to see him run well again, but whether he's up to beating the favourite I'm not sure.

Kevin Ryan, trainer of Repartee
Repartee has been 100 per cent since a modest effort at Newbury, which I think was just a blip, and I hope he can bounce back. This is a big step up from six furlongs and I'd probably have preferred to go over seven [furlongs], but this is a three-year-olds' race, which is ideal. He got six and a half furlongs well at Doncaster last year and they freewheel down the hill into the straight, so if he's going to get a mile anywhere it will be at Goodwood.

Charlie Hills, trainer of Tilsit
I’m looking forward to running him. He won a novice by 19 lengths, so we were a bit up in the air about where to go. This race will tell us a lot more about him. It looks a good race.

All the Goodwood runners and riders on Friday

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