Glorious Goodwood: Officials pursue Group One status for Lennox Stakes

Glorious Goodwood, one of the highlights of the Flat racing season, will open on the Sussex Downs with track officials "quietly confident" that the Lennox Stakes, the card's feature event, will take another significant step towards an upgrade to Group One status.

"We are in position to guarantee half a million pounds in prize money the day it is upgraded," Alex Eade, the track's general manager, said on Monday. "It is a bit frustrating, but there is a process and it has to be followed."

Glorious Goodwood currently has two Group One events, Wednesday’s Sussex Stakes and the Nassau Stakes on Saturday’s closing card, one fewer than York’s Ebor meeting in August, which is staged over four days rather than five. It is still in the early stages of a 10-year, multi-million pound sponsorship deal with Qatar, however, and has ambitions to see both the Lennox Stakes and Goodwood Cup promoted to Group One status well before the contract expires in 2024.

The traditional route to elevate a race to Group One status is via the end-of-season ratings for the first four home in three successive runnings. If their average rating is 115 or more three years in a row, promotion to the highest level is normally assured.

The Lennox was fractionally below par two seasons ago, but well above the required standard in 2015, when Toormore edged out Dutch Connection and the average rating of the first four was 117. Five of the eight runners in Tuesday’s race are already rated between 113 and 115, so the prospects of another renewal that is up to the necessary standard are very good.

Politics

Politics, though, may also play a part in the decision-making process. The Prix de la Foret, at Longchamp on Arc day in early October, is currently the only all-aged European Group One over seven furlongs, and senior French racing officials may be inclined to delay an upgrade for the Lennox until its case is unanswerable.

“We will have to see what happens tomorrow, and then make our case again [to the European Pattern Race Committee] and wait to see what happens,” Eade said.

Toormore, last year’s Lennox Stakes winner, will line up for the Sussex Stakes at this year’s meeting, but Dutch Connection is back for another attempt at the Lennox, this time in the colours of Godolphin, who bought both Charlie Hills’s runner and Home Of The Brave (3.10), his main market rival, earlier in the season.

Both seem well suited to this trip, but Hugo Palmer's Home Of The Brave looks like a seven-furlong specialist. He had the class to lead the 2,000 Guineas field until close to the furlong pole last season, and the speed to run fifth in the six-furlong Commonwealth Cup at Royal Ascot a few weeks later, and though he has yet to race at Goodwood, it is a track that tends to suits front-runners.

Boynton (2.35) can continue his progress and confirm recent Newmarket form with War Decree in a fascinating Vintage Stakes. Guardian Service