Cosmopolitan entry for Artemis Goodwood Cup

Can Saddler’s Rock pull off a memorable double? Image courtesy of racingfotos.com.

Raiders from Ireland, Germany and France look set to lay a strong challenge in the £100,000 Artemis Goodwood Cup (3.15pm), the feature race on day three of Glorious Goodwood and the third leg in the Long Distance division of the QIPCO British Champions Series next Thursday, which has attracted 18 entries.

John Oxx, who trains at the Curragh, Ireland, enjoyed a first Goodwood winner in the two-mile staying highlight last year with Saddler’s Rock and the five-year-old is set to try and emulate recent multiple winners Yeats, Persian Punch, Double Trigger and Further Flight.

Irish champion trainer Aidan O’Brien, who oversaw Yeats’ brilliant career, could be represented by progressive four-year-old Ernest Hemingway, who readily took the Curragh Cup on his latest appearance at the end of June.

German handler Andreas Wohler may send over Altano, who finished strongly to take fifth in the Gold Cup at Royal Ascot, while Gloomy Sunday, trained in south-west France by Christophe Ferland, has already made a successful cross-Channel raid this season in Sandown’s Henry II Stakes in May.

Number Theory was second to Gloomy Sunday at Sandown and the John Holt-trained gelding was ninth in the Gold Cup before coming home third under top-weight in a Listed handicap at York on 13 July.

The five-year-old enjoyed a meteoric rise through the handicapping ranks last season, winning the Old Newton Cup at Haydock and taking a close third in the Betfred Ebor at York.

Holt revealed: "Number Theory is an intended runner at Goodwood.

"He ran a nice race at York and is in good form at the moment.

"Any rain ahead of next week would help us as I think that he is a better horse on softer ground.

"He was beaten less than nine lengths in the Gold Cup and ran well in the Henry II Stakes.

"He has been very consistent for us and, if he gets some cut in the ground, I think that he could keep on improving again this season."

The 2012 Gold Cup winner Colour Vision may line up for Saeed bin Suroor and the Godolphin handler has also entered Cavalryman, Ahzeemah and Lost In The Moment, who was beaten a head in the 2011 Artemis Goodwood Cup.

Brown Panther, runner-up in the 2011 St Leger, is set to represent trainer Tom Dascombe and owner/breeder Michael Owen, while Askar Tau, who chased home Saddler’s Rock in 2012, could return to Goodwood for Marcus Tregoning.

Other notable entries include QIPCO Yorkshire Cup victor Glen’s Diamond, recent Sandown Listed scorer Caucus and leading Melbourne Cup contender Mount Athos.