Kevin Blake's Big Race Verdict: Strike Red can solve Stewards' Cup puzzle

• Get Kevin Blake's Stewards' Cup 2025 verdict

• Rain complicates the picture in Flat season highlight

• Can Kevin's tip provide a Glorious ending to Goodwood?

Watch Racing Only Bettor Saturday preview show

The Coral Stewards' Cup (Goodwood 15:05) is already one of the fiercest puzzles to solve in the entire Flat season, but this year's renewal has been made even more difficult after the deluge of rain that hit the track on Thursday. This raises all sorts of uncertainty as to how the ground will ride on Saturday and what impact it will have on the draw.

Despite the more sensationalist reaction to the rain in the immediate aftermath of it, the ground at Goodwood like many tracks in the UK is thirsty after a very dry few months. While a lot of rain fell, I expect it to dry out a lot between now and the time of the Steward's Cup. Rightly or wrongly, the following is written on the basis of ground that will be on the easy side of good.

High draw favourable in race that boasts plenty of pace

From a pace perspective, there looks to be a decent spread of it across the track, with Jordan Electrics (2), Hammer The Hammer (4), Jungle Drums (10), Alzahir (12), Twilight Jet (13), Run Boy Run (19) and Get It (27) all being capable of contributing to the pace of the race. In terms of proliferation of pace, the middle draws look to be the hottest, but it could be argued that the highest quality pace is drawn that bit higher with Run Boy Run and Get It being well established in their ability to make the running in high-class sprint handicaps such as this.

It is very difficult to know which way the draw is going to play at the time of writing (11am on Friday). In the absence of pertinent evidence from the racecourse on Friday and Saturday, I'm going to proceed on the basis of pace alone and veer towards those that are drawn that bit higher. As always, keep an eye on the action that takes place after this column is published and make any adjustments that seem appropriate based on that new and very important evidence.

Selection can Strike for Fahey at 10/1

Of those drawn higher, my preference is for the Richard Fahey-trained Strike Red. Very much a hardened sprint handicapper that tends to yo-yo up and down the ratings, he has dropped back to a similar rating off which he has gained his last three wins.

Richard Fahey has been having a slightly stop-start season thus far, but he has been amongst the winners in recent days and this horse looks like he might well be bubbling up into winning form. He has shaped well a couple of times this season, but his most promising run was his latest effort at York last weekend as he came home very well from what was a poor draw to be beaten by just 1¼ lengths.

While he is known for having a liking for York, he has winning form over a wide variety of tracks and ran well in this race last year when perhaps finding the test a little bit sharp on good-to-firm ground. The slower surface will put that little bit more emphasis on stamina and he has shown a liking for an ease in the ground in the past too.

Most pertinently, he is drawn in between the two highest-quality pieces of potential pace in the race, which might well help ensure that he is in what proves to be the right part of the track. Billy Garrity knows him better than anyone and with a bit of luck he will deliver him with a significant late challenge to get involved in the finish.

Now read Saturday ITV Racing Tips: Mark Milligan's three to back at Glorious Goodwood and Newmarket