Wednesday Racing Tips: Mark Milligan fancies a pair of mudlarks at Goodwood

• Mark heads to Goodwood for Wednesday's selections

• Rhoscolyn can win the same race again with conditions to suit

• New Boughey runner can strike at first time of asking

14:55 Goodwood - Back Rhoscolyn

With the official going currently described as heavy, conditions look sure to be testing at Goodwood on Wednesday and it should pay to stick with proven mudlarks on what is an interesting midweek card.

There are several that will relish the mud in this 7f handicap, Thunderball being one and last year's winner of this corresponding race, Rhoscolyn, being another.

Thunderball had an upwardly-mobile three-year-old season last year, winning twice, the latter which came at this track in soft ground last October.

I fancied him for the Lincoln on the back of that effort and he didn't run badly at all when seventh in that contest.

He improved on that when fourth at Newbury next time, but has been rather flat on his last two outings, finishing out with the washing both times.

Given doubts over Thunderball's current wellbeing, I'm happy to side with Rhoscolyn to take this race for the second successive year.

David O'Meara's gelding absolutely loves the mud and will be strong at the finish when plenty of his rivals are crying enough.

He won on soft ground at Epsom in the spring and it's easy enough to forgive his most recent efforts given that conditions haven't really been in his favour.

With the conditions right up his alley and the O'Meara team in flying form, it's hard to look past Rhoscolyn in this spot and any price of 10/34.33 or above will make plenty of appeal.

It's also worth mentioning Hafeet Alain, who also has a solid record in deep ground and shouldn't be too far away, though whether he has much wiggle room from his current mark of 97 is debatable.

16:05 Goodwood - Back Botanical

The feature race at Goodwood in the 1m 2f Listed Foundation Stakes and I fancy Botanical to strike on his first start for the George Boughey yard.

This four-year-old was in the care of Roger Varian but is amongst those that have left that stable after Sheikh Mohammed Obaid decided to sever ties and have his Varian-trained runners moved to other trainers.

The son Lope De Vega won twice in his three-year-old season, including on his final 2023 start when taking a soft-ground Hamilton handicap.

He returned with a win at York in May before going on to run a cracker back at the Knavesmire in July, finishing second to Enfjaar in the John Smith's Cup, seemingly enjoying the return to an easier surface having bombed out on fast ground at Royal Ascot in between.

With his proven liking for underfoot conditions, I'm hopeful Botanical can take the step up from handicap company in his stride.

Not that he'll have things all his own way, as he meets a strong challenger in the shape of Godolphin's Passion And Glory, who was at one point a bit better than this grade.

The eight-year-old rolled back the years when winning a handicap at Ascot last time and does have a deep ground win to his name if you go back far enough in his form, though the feeling is he's probably better under quicker conditions than he'll encounter here.

I'm hopeful that the younger Botanical will have too many guns for his older rival on ground that should suit ideally.

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