2:00 – Goodwood – COUTTS GLORIOUS STAKES (GROUP 3) (CLASS 1) (4yo+) Good 1m4f
Gatewood comes into today’s race in terrific form. He has had three runs this season and has won all three of them. The 4 year old bay colt who is trained by John Gosden has had six starts to date and has now won four times, with all of his runs coming over 1 mile 2 furlongs. He is up in trip to 1 mile 4 furlongs for the first time, but all of the evidence suggests that he will see out the longer trip well.
Gatewood did not make his racecourse debut until June last year when he finished 2nd in a Class 5 Maiden race at Windsor. He needed to be ridden 3 furlongs out to renew his effort and he stayed on well and was closing on the winner at the post. He would probably have won had he possessed a bit more experience. He made no mistake on his second start at Salisbury. He was prominent throughout and led from over 3 furlongs out. He was pressed strongly and ridden but stayed on strongly and was going away at the end of the race to win by 3 ¾ lengths.
All three of Gatewood’s wins this season have followed a similar pattern. On his seasonal reappearance at York in May he was in 2nd place 2 furlongs out, before leading inside the final furlong saying on well to win a Class 2 Handicap. He next ran at Epsom on Oaks day and although he only won by a neck in another Class 2 Handicap he ran the final furlong very strongly and was in command by the end of the race. His latest run was at Royal Ascot when he stepped up in trip to Listed class to contest the Wolferton Handicap. He again won by a neck but was staying on strongly and his jockey William Buick said after the race: “This horse will get a mile and a half in time and he’s finished his race off really well. He’s better than the winning margin and hopefully he’s going places.”
As mentioned earlier he steps up to 1 mile 4 furlongs for the first time today and the manner in which he has been staying on at the end of all of his races strongly hints that he should see out the extra 2 furlongs comfortably. A look at his breeding helps to back this up as he is by Galileo who has a very impressive 26% winning strike rate with his progeny around 12 furlongs. The statistics on his dam’s side are almost as strong.
The going at Goodwood is Good and Gatewood has won twice and been placed once in the ground with his two wins coming this season at York and Epsom. He has not run at Goodwood before and not all horses are able to act on it. However, the fact that he has won on the undulations around Epsom suggest that he will cope well with the Goodwood cambers.
He is ridden by stable jockey William Buick and Gatewood has won on all four starts under him. William has already has two winners at Goodwood this week, giving him 20 winners at the track over the last 5 years.
Gatewood faces only 6 rivals today, but it looks like a strong race with the likes of Songcraft, Dubai Prince and Quest For Peace in the line up. It is also an important race for Gatewood in another way as the Australian based syndicate OTI Racing have recently bought a 50% share of the horse with a view to running him in the Melbourne Cup which is run over 2 miles. However, he has been making big strides in decent handicaps this season culminating in his Listed win at Royal Ascot last time out and he is well worth trying at Group 3 level today.
