William Buick made a perfect start to the 2026 Qatar Goodwood Festival presented by Visit Qatar as he guided Al Aali (11/2JF) to victory in the opening 10-furlong Coral Chesterfield Cup Handicap.
Buick, who partners Trawlerman in the day’s feature G1 Al Shaqab Goodwood Cup, sat quietly on the George Scott-trained four-year-old, who had plenty of racing room after the 17 runners fanned out at the cutaway.
Al Aali picked up strongly to collar long-time leader Noble Horizon (13/2) and win comfortably by three-quarters of a length, making it two wins from two starts since the application of blinkers. The consistent Night Breeze (14/1) added another placing to his CV in third, while Tony Montana (18/1) came from the back of the field to take fourth.
Scott said: “It has taken a little bit of time to get to know Al Aali and the inside draw [3] really suited him. William just crept away and kept improving his position. It was a good watch – we have had a couple of mishaps in the last few days, so it was nice that it all went our way.
“Since we have had Al Aali, we have just struggled to understand him and, in the last few weeks, we have changed a few things around. Credit to everyone at home for freshening him up. He has spent a lot of time in the paddock, came back in great form and took a lot of confidence from last time out.
“Horses like to be out grazing; they are herd animals, so if you get the opportunity to let them out, they normally thrive. He just goes out, puts his head down and grazes for three hours. He is happy.
“He is a horse that Sheikh Nasser actually picked himself at the Arc Sale last year. We thought we’d slightly overpaid and he has got some way to go to repay us, but that was a big step forward.”
Buick said: “George was very sweet on Al Aali today. He only had 8st 10lb, and it takes a bit of focus to get down to that weight, but he was worth it.
“I had the draw and I had the horse. He was a bit slowly away, but I just managed to wake him up on the inside and get him into a nice position. Once the race developed and the cutaway came into play, I grew in confidence the further the race went.
“George has really sweetened him up. When he’s happy, he travels along and is not a horse you can bully. Once he got into the clear, he picked up really well. It was a nice start to the meeting.
“The ground is beautiful – it’s like a carpet. I don’t think Ed [Arkell] and his team could have done a much better job, to be honest.”
Oli Rix said of Noble Horizon: “Silvestre [de Sousa] has given him a lovely ride. A furlong down I thought we would win, but he just got done for toe late on. He stayed on through the line lovely and we will probably go up to a mile and a half next time. We are thrilled with him.”
Edward Greatrex, rider of Night Breeze, said: “I am delighted with him, big run. Ian [Williams] has placed him beautifully and he is a really straightforward horse. He took me into the race and I just had to switch at the wrong time, but that sort of comes with this number of runners. He is going to be one to look forward to in all the big staying handicaps for the rest of the year.”
1.50pm Coral Chesterfield Cup Handicap
1 Al Aali (Victorious Forever) George Scott 4-8-10 William Buick 11/2JF
2 Noble Horizon (Seven Seas) Oli Rix 4-8-11 Silvestre de Sousa 13/2
3 Night Breeze (Midtech 2) Ian Williams 6-8-12 Edward Greatrex 14/1
4 Tony Montana (Amo Racing Limited) Kevin Philippart de Foy 6-8-04 Toby Moore (7) 18/1
17 ran 11/2JF Twisting Physics (5th)
George Scott – 2nd Qatar Goodwood Festival winner
William Buick – 42nd Qatar Goodwood Festival winner