Al Shaqab Goodwood Cup (Group 1)

THE Group 1 feature on day one of the Qatar Goodwood Festival was the expected clash between four-time winner Stradivarius and Alan King’s Trueshan, but just as at Ascot, the weather intervened.

This time the soft ground saw Stradivarius duck out of the Goodwood Cup, leaving the way clear for 6/5 favourite Trueshan and Hollie Doyle to star.

Always close to the pace, Doyle had the good sense to move alongside Nayef Road before the straight to ensure she would avoid getting caught in a pocket, and while she faced a surprising challenge from the strong-travelling Away He Goes (Ismail Mohammed/Jim Crowley) halfway up the straight, Trueshan turned back the challenge and stayed on very strongly to win going away by three and three-quarter lengths.

Away He Goes held second, with Sir Ron Priestley (Mark Johnston/Franny Norton), under a change of tactics, plugging on for third, another length and a half away.

Santiago fared best of Aidan O’Brien’s quartet, which is faint praise as none of them really figured with a chance, and 2020 Derby hero Serpentine has become bitterly disappointing.

Sir Ron Priestley pulled up lame after the race and was taken away in the horse ambulance, but it was later reported that he had sustained a soft-tissue injury and was expected to make a full recovery, but hhis racing career appears to have come to an end.

Alan King admitted that the occasion got to him, saying afterwards: “It is a very special moment. I have been very calm all morning, then when John took out Stradivarius, the nerves really started to kick in. I have not been this nervous for a long time.

“I have always enjoyed my flat races and this is very special. This is up there with the Champion Hurdles. All I want to do is train proper horses! I am not giving up the jumping yet!

Great ride

“Hollie has given him a great ride and the owners have been great supporters of mine. Trueshan can be a little keen so I’m glad he had a proper race at Newcastle – he could have been ferocious today if he hadn’t had that run.

“Trueshan is very ground dependent. We had to take him out of the Gold Cup, which is very hard to do. The Cadran will probably be his big target in the autumn.”

It was very much Hollie Doyle’s day at Goodwood, as not only did she win the Goodwood Cup on Trueshan, but she also scored on her other two mounts, aboard John Quinn’s Lord Riddiford in the Back To Goodwood Handicap and then when steering Sisters In The Sky to success in the British Stallion Studs EBF Maiden for Roger Teal.