On Thursday right after the finish of the Richmond the rain came down.
And it come down very heavily resulting in a mad dash for shelter and a lot of rain-soaked people trying to look like it didn't matter.
It didn't seem to worry Dan Probert who was on the 5/1 winner Coppull – after all he's off to Hong Kong shortly as is Richard Kingscote and both now have Goodwood winners in their CVs. Puerto Rico ran a good race for second but the winner just a bit too good this time, with Havana Hurricane powering home in third.
The Gordon saw Merchant fight out a tough finish with Wimbledon Hawkeye to win by a nose and they were 7 lengths clear of Windlord in third.
The rain kept on coming and the start in the Nassau was delayed due to thunder and lightning and because of the latter there was a flag start to this race – wonder if there has been another G1 in recent times that had a flag start! The rain poured down during the race but the lovely Whirl was not to be deterred and paid no attention to the down-grading of the track to heavy as she pulled off a 5 lengths win over Cercene 11/1 and See The Fire 5/2 in third. That's a second G1 for Whirl and even her master Aidan O'Brien seemed a bit gobsmacked by the ease in which she won in truly appalling conditions.
The going is almost certain to be slow at best for Friday where the first of the Group races is the Bonhams G3 over 1600m now down to four runners. Diego Ventura has a win on the soft already and we'll give the nod to the Wathnan runner and James Doyle who are on 7/2. Current favourite is Cosmic Year but you have to ignore the run in the Jean Prat to go for the 11/10 odds.
The King George Qatar Stakes
is G1 over 1000m and here we have Australian sprinter Asfoora on top on 10/3 with Oisin Murphy taking the ride this time. Second in this race last year she's been back to Aus since and this will be her second start in the UK this year. Time for Sandals won the Commonwealth Cup at Ascot and is on 5/1 and one we have been keeping an eye on Frost At Dawn is on 11/1.
