PERRETT LOOKING TO STRIKE IN THE GROUP TWO ABN AMRO GOODWOOD CUP
Tungsten Strike ran a great race to be third in a vintage renewal of the £100,000 Group Two ABN Amro Goodwood Cup last season and the gelding's trainer Amanda Perrett is hoping for another big effort in the prestigious two-mile contest at Glorious Goodwood on Thursday, August 2.
Champion stayer Yeats took the spoils in 2006 from the Jamie Osborne-trained Geordieland, with Tungsten Strike making the frame after leading at the three-furlong pole.
Group One Ascot Gold Cup runner-up Geordieland, who is also reported by his trainer Jamie Osborne to be on course for the £100,000 contest, will have to be at his best to repel an in-form Tungsten Strike.
Perrett revealed today: “Tungsten Strike is heading to Goodwood for the ABN Amro Goodwood Cup and I'm hoping for another good run.”
Tungsten Strike began this season in excellent form with a length and a half defeat of Baddam in the Group Three Woodcote Stud Sagaro Stakes at Ascot on May 2, before finishing fifth in the Group Two WBX.com Henry II Stakes at Sandown and then fading to finish 13th in the Group One Ascot Gold Cup over two and a half miles.
Perrett, who believes there are valid reasons for Tungsten Strike's two below-par efforts, reported: “He'll have to put his run in the Ascot Gold Cup behind him but I think he probably doesn't get the extended trip.
“I've run him twice in the race and he hasn't got home either time so the two miles of the ABN Amro Goodwood Cup will suit him.
"I think first time out was his best run of the year so let's hope he can recapture that form again. He didn't handle the soft ground at Sandown the time after. He definitely wants quicker ground than that.”
The Group Two ABN Amro Goodwood Cup, first run in 1812, is the midsummer highlight of the staying division and always provides a thrilling spectacle, as it did last term when the Aidan O'Brien-trained Yeats stormed home five lengths clear of his nearest pursuer.
Crowd favourite Persian Punch scored a spine-tingling short-head victory over the previous year's winner Jardine's Lookout in the 2003 renewal, having already taken the prize in 2001.
The immensely popular Double Trigger made it three wins in the Group Two contest when scoring under Darryll Holland in 1998. The brilliant chestnut defeated his year younger full-brother Double Eclipse when winning his first ABN Amro Goodwood Cup in 1995.
Double Trigger's trainer Mark Johnston has an enviable record in the great race, having won it five times. His other winners are Royal Rebel (2000) and Darasim (2004).
The £100,000 Group Two ABN Amro Goodwood Cup (3.25pm), which will be shown live on Channel 4, is the feature race on day three - Ladies’ Day - of the five-day Glorious Goodwood Festival, which runs from Tuesday, July 31 to Saturday, August 4.
Asiatic Boy, the South African challenger for the Group One BGC Sussex Stakes on Wednesday, August 1, had a spin at Goodwood this morning so as get an experience of the track.
For old articles (from 1st March 2000) go to the Newslink
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