Rhoscolyn gallops to Golden glory at Goodwood

Rhoscolyn continued his Goodwood love affair when claiming the valuable Coral Golden Mile.

Travelling kindly for Daniel Tudhope throughout, the seven-year-old was in the ideal place to pounce in the closing stages.

Stoked up by his rider as the race began to unfold, he surged onto the scene inside the final furlong before galloping a length clear of runner-up Ebt’s Guard at the line.

It was the seven-year-old’s second appearance of the week on the Sussex Downs having finished down the field when seen on Wednesday, but by scoring at odds of 11-2, Rhoscolyn went one better than his second in this race in 2021 to register not only his sixth course success, but also give David O’Meara a third win in the contest since 2020.

The trainer said: “The rain came in the nick of time otherwise the boys might not have run him, but he didn’t take anything out of himself when he ran here earlier in the week.

“I think we’ve been fortunate to benefit from the bad luck of others in this race and once again the gaps came for him.

“There’s a nice handicap over seven furlongs or a mile back here for him worth a hundred grand and that’s where he’ll go.”

William Muir, co-trainer of runner-up Ebt’s Guard along with Chris Grassick, said: “He cost five grand and he is an absolute star. He won the Spring Cup at Newbury, was unlucky not to be placed in the Royal Hunt Cup at Royal Ascot because we were drawn in the middle and he got too far back.

“Last time in the Bunbury Cup at Newmarket people said he was disappointing, but if he hadn’t been hampered he would have been third. He was shut off twice.

“He takes everything you give him. I am really proud of him. I didn’t enter him at York because that was the only place he ran badly last year.

“He could run in a Racing League race and I will put him in the Cambridgeshire. He finished sixth in it last year.”

Richard Hughes, trainer of third-placed Real Gain, said: “On good ground we might just have done it. In the soft ground he probably just got jelly legs in the last 100 yards.

“We are thrilled with him. He hadn’t run for a year, he had bone soreness, so we had to give him time off. He will go straight to the Cambridgeshire.”