Well what a week it was at Glorious Goodwood on ITV, with Stradivarius, Battaash and Mohaather taking centre stage.
But who or what has made it to my latest Good Bad Ugly column?
GOOD
We are used to the likes of Ryan Moore, Frankie Dettori and Oisin Murphy dominating the headlines, so it was refreshing to have Tom Marquand and Harry Bentley really showing what they can do at Glorious Goodwood.
Marquand had a great week for William Haggas, and with James Doyle often needed by Godolphin, Marquand is really Haggas’s main man now, with Cieren Fallon his budding apprentice.
Marquand mixes everything that is good. He’s a class rider and a decent bloke, and it’s hard to imagine every owner not liking him.
Bentley hasn’t quite had the headlines of Marquand in recent times, but in many ways he’s similar, although he takes a bit more time on his hair.
Bentley has formed a good relationship with Ralph Beckett and is getting plenty of outside support.
Jim Crowley is also flying, although as a former champion that is hardly surprising. At one stage it looked like being Hamdan al Maktoum’s retained rider would be a bad job rather than a good one, but that’s definitely not the case this season. Well done to all.
BAD
I’m not really fussed about the length of punishment that was given, and it’s nothing against the rider as he’s always very helpful, for the life of me I can’t see how Robert Havlin’s 10-day ban was totally overturned from interference recently caused at Yarmouth.
The case has been much publicised so I don’t need to go into all the details, but even the fact the appeal board thought Havlin’s mount moved violently left is quite beyond me.
I’ve watched it loads of times and I can’t see any quick move at all. It’s all a game of opinions, but this is a very odd one.
UGLY
No doubt it’s going to get ugly for the sport if crowds are not allowed back soon on track, and with Coronavirus seemingly spreading again it’s hard to see that happening any time soon.
Quite simply for the funding of the game we need racegoers, and the current situation is far more serious than most are letting on.
There seems to be no plan in place, and that’s understandable as it’s hard to plan with Government forced to change its status quo every few days.
That said, I hope the brains in the game have a plan if crowds can’t get back racing for months rather than weeks.
And if they have one it would be great to hear what it is! This is a time for thinking outside the box. And quick.
