3 minute read

John Gosden's sensational form continued as he registered his third victory of the week.

Which taking him to the top of the Leading Trainer Award category, following the success of 4/1 joint-favourite Forest Of Dean in the 10-furlong £75,000 Unibet Handicap.

Ridden by Harry Bentley, registering his first victory at this year's Qatar Goodwood Festival, the three-year-old son of Iffraaj ran on strongly up the far-side rail to score by two and a half-lengths over the Andrew Balding-trained Fox Premier (11/2) in second.

Gosden, successful on the Sussex Downs already this week with Stradivarius (G1 Qatar Goodwood Cup) and Too Darn Hot (G1 Qatar Sussex Stakes), said: "I freshened Forest Of Dean  up after he ran a very good race to finish fourth in the London Gold Cup at Newbury behind Headman (Roger Charlton), who went on to win a G2 at Saint-Cloud, so the form was strong.

"This race used to be called the Extel. If you won this, you got a free ride in a Spitfire. It was always a very celebrated race and I thought this was a horse who deserved to take his chance here.

"He was slow away, but they have dropped the rail in the straight from today. Therefore when you enter the straight now, there is a little chicane which has opened the track up a bit.

"What people don't realise is that the straight here is not straight on that rail. It actually elbows out towards the middle of the track and causes a concertina effect. That is why you get a lot of bad luck stories here, but when you have that little auxiliary rail it does help. It's the brave man's route, but it was the only route we could go to.

"As for the future, we'll wait and see what the handicapper does. We will see how far he is pushed up, then we will decide if we keep him in another handicap for three-year-olds, a mixed-age handicap or whether we get bold and run in a Listed event."

Winning rider Bentley remarked: "I tried to be positive from the get-go and get a handier position than I ended up with.

"I spoke to Mr Gosden in the paddock beforehand and we discussed that there is false rail there, which really helps things open up in the straight.

"It took a while for the gap to come but from my position, it was just a matter of waiting as you cannot go over the top of these horses. Luckily, the gap arrived and he was very brave to go through it.