GLORIOUS GOODWOOD: All the day one action

There is a record amount of prize money up for grabs this week - £4.975m - and there are top-class races and big fields on each day of the five.

Tuesday’s highlight was the Qatar Lennox Stakes, with the Qatar Wintage Stakes a close second as it gives top two-year-olds a chance to shine.

Here’s how the afternoon unfolded...

The first race of the 2016 festival went to a jockey and trainer who don’t often team up but who each in their own right enjoy plenty of Goodwood success - Adam Kirby and Mark Johnston.

The Matchbook Betting Exchange Stakes, a class two handicap, got Glorious off to a thrilling start and the four-year-old Johnston-trained Fire Fighting took the honours after starting at 8/1.

Oasis Fantasy (12/1) was second for Silvestre de Sousa and Ed Dunlop.

You can expect that not to be Johnston’s last winner of the week - he loves Glorious, is one of the top trainers for the festival in recent times and has a strong hand of runners throughout the week.

This was Johnston’s 67th winner at Glorious - putting him four behind the current leading trainer Sir Michael Stoute - and taking his overall winning tally at the track to 119. It was also his sixth victory in the race.

Johnston said, tongue in cheek: “This horse is a bit special - we wanted him so much we took him to the sales and couldn’t sell him. Thank goodness, because of what he has done since - it’s wonderful.

“I think there are a lot of horses out there that could be like this. You have to wonder whether is he tough and that what makes him able to race a lot or is it the fact that he races a lot makes him tough.

“We gave him a couple of months off in the winter and his first run back was the first time that he has ever come back lame from a race. You have to remember that time off doesn’t always do them good.”

The Qatar Vintage Stakes was taken in impressive style by the Aidan O’Brien-trained War Decree, tipped by the Observer sports editor here earlier.

The two-year-old’s odds for next year’s 2000 Guineas were immediately cut from 25/1 to 12/1 by some bookies.

Godolphin’s Thunder Snow was second under Aussie jockey James McDonald.

War Decree jockey Ryan Moore - favourite for the top jockeys’ title for the week - said the horse was very well-balanced and a good mover, and one who should improve again.

Kevin Buckley, UK Representative for Coolmore, said: “War Decree has definitely improved from the Superlative Stakes last time. We had a 3lb advantage today, he is still a little green but that was an exciting performance.

“It did look a rough race but being by War Front he acted well on the ground and that is why we decided to come here. He can stay at this distance or step up a little bit. We might look at the Champagne or the National Stakes. Going to America is certainly a possibility given his pedigree.”

Moore, registering his 115th winner at the Sussex venue and his 29th at Glorious, said: “Like all of Aidan’s two-year-olds, he has improved a great deal from Newmarket. Every run, he has progressed and he is a very well-balanced and good-moving horse.

“He’s a nice type and was still green when he got there - he still had a look and his head went around - and I would say they he will improve again. I felt that we could turn the Newmarket form around. We were getting 3lb and I thought inexperience cost him the last day. Aidan’s horses all seem to progress and this lad certainly has.”

The feature race, the Group 2 Qatar Lennox Stakes, turned into a battle of the Godolphin horses and it went to Dutch Connection, ridden by McDonald for Charlie Hills, by a length and three-quarters.

Runner-up last year, Dutch Connection led home a one-two for Godolphin, for Home Of The Brave, from Hugo Palmer’s stable, took second, a length and three-quarters adrift of the winner, and the same distance ahead of his stablemate, Gifted Master, who made the early running.

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