John and Thady Gosden kicked off Glorious Goodwood in the best possible fashion when Westridge waltzed his way to victory in the Coral Chesterfield Cup.
A winner of two of his nine outings to date, the four-year-old son of Blue Point was sent off a well-backed 6/1 chance in the hands of Billy Loughnane, who was having his first spin for the Clarehaven Stables teams with Westridge carrying just 8st 8lbs in the opener.
Always well-positioned from stall eight under the emerging star, Westridge moved stylishly into contention at the two pole before sprinting clear in the final furlong to score by three and a half lengths.
As Westridge strode clear for a fine success, there was plenty of argy-bargy going on in-behind, with Naqeeb faring best of the rest to claim the runner-up spot ahead of Roger Varian's Defiance.
''He enjoyed the space around him today and Billy (Loughnane) gave him as lovely ride," said John Gosden. "It is not easy in a big handicap field, but he broke well, and he made good use of him. He is owned by Glen Manchester, my wife and Nicholas Wrigley so it is a proper partnership.
''We did have him in the July Sales but wisely chose to take him out three days before the sale.
"The handicapper will have him now but to win the Chesterfield Cup is a dream come true because Glen is very much Goodwood orientated.
''He worse a sheepskin noseband because he is not very good at concentrating. Otherwise, he would have been looking for low-flying seagulls."
On future plans, Gosden added: ''He will have to go to York next, but I don't know what we will run him in.''
The winner might not be the only horse from the contest heading to York for his next outing, Roger Varian keen to look at options over a mile and a half for his third-place finisher Defiance.
He said: "He's screaming for a bit further, but we just wanted to give him another chance at a mile and a quarter.
"I think when he goes a mile and a half he'll be winning again, and there are three nice races for him on Ebor weekend. He's not in the Ebor itself, but there's one at York, one at Hamilton and one back here at Goodwood. We'll pick one of those three provided he comes out of this all right.
"That was a good run from an unhelpful draw, and he was outpaced early, so we couldn't get as prominent a pitch as we wanted and had to accept it, but he came home well."
