This year's Glorious Goodwood meeting has provided more memorable spectacles to sit alongside past highlights, and Saturday's concluding card could prove the perfect climax as Minding (Ire) (Galileo {Ire}) aims for a sixth top-level success in the G1 Qatar Nassau S. Two of Ballydoyle's best of this sex in Peeping Fawn (Danehill) and Halfway To Heaven (Ire) (Pivotal {GB}) captured this prize in 2007 and 2008, and there is a strong chance that this year's G1 1000 Guineas and G1 Epsom Oaks heroine could eclipse both of those before long. Certainly, the manner of her emphatic defeat of the subsequent G2 Kilboy Estate S. winner Bocca Baciata (Ire) (Big Bad Bob {Ire}) in the G1 Pretty Polly S. over this trip at The Curragh last time June 26 suggests she may already be in a class of her own, and Aidan O'Brien is full of praise as he saddles her for another of the season's highlights. “I'm not sure if we've had a more resilient filly and we've been delighted with her this season,” he said. “I'm not sure what her best distance is. We know she has the pace for the top league at a mile and we know she gets a mile- and-a-half. She's also comfortable in between at a mile-and- quarter, which is lovely. It's very unusual to be so adaptable. She's progressing with every run and is a very strong traveler. All anybody wants is safe ground and [clerk of the course] Seamus [Buckley] will keep it safe. That's what everyone wants for every horse.”
Minding has plenty in hand on the one older filly who lines up in Godolphin's Beautiful Romance (GB) (New Approach {Ire}), who is tried in a visor for the first time after a latest laboured fifth placing in Royal Ascot's G2 Hardwicke S. over a mile-and-a-half June 18. Previously, last year's G1 QIPCO British Champions Fillies & Mares S. third had won York's G2 Middleton S. over an extended 10-furlong trip May 12, so she has earned the right to be here, but the bare fact is that she has to concede 10 pounds to the favourite. “Minding is obviously a fabulous filly, but Beautiful Romance is a Group 2 winner and a filly with a lot of class,” John Ferguson said. “Saeed [bin Suroor] is very happy with her and she deserves to take her chance.”
Of the other three 3-year-olds to take their chance, Cheveley Park Stud's 'TDN Rising Star' Queen's Trust (GB) (Dansili {GB}) could be the most interesting after a latest unlucky fourth in the G2 Ribblesdale S. over 12 furlongs at Royal Ascot June 16. Given too much to do off a slow pace on that occasion, she encountered traffic problems when previously fourth in the Listed Haras de Bouquetot Fillies' Trial S. over this trip at Newbury May 14, and the stud's managing director Chris Richardson is hoping she can show her true ability here. “She is an improving filly and we feel that she has been a bit unlucky so far,” he explained. “Sir Michael is adamant that she should be competing at the top level and, whilst I appreciate Minding might be an impossible filly to beat, if you are not in you cannot win. I don't think the drop back in trip will be a problem. The family were specialists over 10 furlongs and, although she looked better the further she went at Ascot, she has got a turn of foot.” Sir Michael Stoute, who currently sits one behind the record of eight successes in this held by his late great rival Sir Henry Cecil, added, “Minding is a machine, but hopefully we will get some [black] type. She hasn't had luck in running on both of her starts this year but is a nice, progressive filly.”
Another trainer with a smart record is John Gosden, who boasts four renewals and three on the bounce between 2012 and 2014, and he puts forward Khalid Abdullah's Listed Pretty Polly S. winner Swiss Range (GB) (Zamindar), who disappointed when eighth in the 10 1/2-furlong G1 Prix de Diane at Chantilly June 19. “I was delighted to see there were only five runners, but I was less delighted to see Minding was one of them,” the owner-breeder's racing manager Teddy Grimthorpe said. “Swiss Range was very impressive on her two starts at Newmarket earlier in the year and actually ran very respectably in the Prix de Diane. John was keen to give her another go at this level, she's in good shape and I think she deserves her place in the race. I don't think there's any doubt which horse is the one to beat.”
Ninth in that Chantilly Classic was Al Shaqab's G1 Prix Saint-Alary winner Jemayel (Ire) (Lope de Vega {Ire}), and Harry Herbert said of her, “She is a Group 1 winner and after winning that, the Prix de Diane was the natural next step. Unfortunately she was quite badly interfered with at Chantilly and while I'm not saying she would have won, she would have finished a lot closer. We felt a race like the Nassau would suit as with Minding in the field, it was unlikely there would be many runners. We're not expecting to beat Minding, but anything can happen in a horse race, particularly at Goodwood.”
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