Lord Riddiford’s love affair with Goodwood continued as he powered his way to a third consecutive success in the opening five-furlong Coral Handicap.
The eight-year-old was drawn highest in stall 15 but coming up the stands’ rail proved no hindrance to the 8/1 chance, who pulled clear in the final furlong to win by an emphatic three and a quarter lengths.
Lord Riddiford has now won four times in all at the Qatar Goodwood Festival for trainer John Quinn, but this was the first time that he had been steered to victory by Hong Kong-bound Andrea Atzeni.
Runner-up Existent (12/1) fared best in a bunched finish for the places, a neck in front of Alligator Alley (12/1) in third.
Quinn said: “Lord Riddiford really likes this track. He ran quite well in the Dash [at Epsom] but the ground was a little bit quick for him. We thought, ‘he’s an old horse, we’ll freshen him up for here and hope that he gets a bit of cut in the ground’. He’s been training well at home, but I thought it was a better race than he won last year; some of the horses brought better form to the race. But as you saw there, he loves this place, and the cut in the ground was very important.
“When I saw the draw, I thought on the first day in the first race on the straight track, I was happy to be 15, to be honest with you. At least we were near the rail. The ground is the same across the track for the first race, so I thought, 15, near the rail when the ground is soft, will be an advantage.
“We were more than hopeful. With these older horses, they need conditions to be ideal. Two-year-olds will probably go on ground a bit quicker than is ideal, but older horses need it ideal. When I was driving down yesterday there was rain all the way to London, which was lovely! It stopped a bit further on, and then when we got to Goodwood it was raining again and I thought, lovely. It’s great to see an eight-year-old bounce back, and I’m delighted.”
Atzeni said: “He does love it here. He had won this race twice before and he was on a good mark. He had not won since this race last year.”
On his decision to move to Hong Kong, he said: “At the moment it’s a short stint with a six-month contract, but I’m looking forward to going to Hong Kong at the end of the month.
“No decision in life is an easy one, and this is a life-changing one for me, but I think it came at the right time. It came from nowhere – I didn’t expect the phone call a little while back – but I spoke to a few close people and came to the conclusion that it’s a good opportunity for me to give it a go. Things are not going badly here, but they’re not getting any easier.
“It doesn’t matter where you are in the world . . . England, America, Hong Kong, everywhere is going to be hard, so I’m looking forward to a new challenge and giving it a go. I am lucky that I have no problems with my weight.”
Existent’s rider Hector Crouch said: “He ran really well. We thought we were drawn [3] in the right place the way the racing has been working out here this year, but on the day the stands’ rail looks like it is far superior and that’s what we’ve lost out to unfortunately. He was giving away a lot of weight and has run a great race.”
On the ground, he added: “It is definitely on the slow side of good. It felt pretty soft to be honest.”