Betfair | Goodwood Day Three Round-Up: Magnificent Murtagh rides Yeats to victory

Goodwood Day Three Round-Up: Magnificent Murtagh rides Yeats to victory

Yeats' Goodwood Cup win was impressive even by his high standards, says Simon Rowlands.

The staying division is usually the poor relation where Flat racing is concerned, with little strength in depth and a sense that the top stayers are often not quite good enough to mix it with the best at middle distances.

Not so with Yeats (130), the one-time Derby favourite who won a Coronation Cup at 12f in 2005. Since then, he's been successful in 9 of his 15 starts and has eventually become the undisputed leader amongst the stayers. His win in this afternoon's Goodwood Cup was impressive even by his high standards, as he gave 5 lb and a 7-length beating to Tungsten Strike (116), going clear with the second early in the straight and brushing that one aside in the final 2f.

Timeform's leading stayers this century have been Kayf Tara in 2000 and Westerner in 2005, both rated 130. It will be fascinating to see what the form gurus rate Yeats (previous best of 128) after this effort. I make this run fractionally better than even his 5-length defeats of Geordieland in the Gold Cup at Ascot this year and in the Goodwood Cup (when setting a course record) in 2006.

At the opposite end of the stamina spectrum, Enticing (118) won the 5f Audi (King George) Stakes in the fastest time (56.63 sec) for the race since Rudi's Pet set a course record of 56.01 sec in 1999, underlining that the ground has got a bit quicker with each day this week.

Enticing benefited from a magnificent ride from Yeats' jockey Johnny Murtagh, who settled her just off the very strong pace and delivered her in the centre of the track to lead 100 yards out. Masta Plasta (117) was a length back in second, conceding the winner a 3 lb sex allowance.

Enticing has had plenty of chances at the top level and failed, but she is some performer when on song and faced with a fast 5f. In her rather surprising absence from the entries for the Nunthorpe Stakes at York on August 22nd, the Betfair ante-post market is headed by Royal Ascot winners Equiano (5.3 to back) and Kingsgate Native (5.6).

The day started with a thrilling finish to the Group 3 contest for fillies at 14f. Gravitation (106) got the verdict by a short head from Folk Opera (106), but only after a head-to-head struggle throughout the final 2f. The proximity of apparent no-hoper Susie May in fourth is just one reason to view the form as weak for the grade.

* Ratings are form-based assessments, expressed in pounds, and are on a scale similar to those employed by Racing Post and Timeform.