2 more interviews completed

While Stradivarius was landing the Goodwood Cup for a second consecutive year and Sir Dancealot, one of last year's Top 40 Prospects, was taking the Lennox Stakes on the opening day of the Qatar Goodwood Festival, I took the opportunity to carry out another couple of interviews for One Jump Ahead. Both Kim Bailey and Anthony Honeyball have been added to the list of Talking Trainers with the pair responsible for a number of promising youngsters, plus decent teams of older horses. Both trainers have featured in OJA in previous years but not for sometime. I am hoping to carry out more interviews later in the week.

Talking of the Top 40, the Roger Varian trained Masaarr won a Listed contest at Deauville on Tuesday. The son of Distorted Humor had finished third in a similar event at Newmarket's July meeting but was fitted with headgear for the first time across the English Channel. Partnered by Christophe Soumillon, he led close home by a short neck.

A dark one to watch out for at Goodwood on Thursday is the Charlie Hills trained Artistic Rifles in the seven furlongs nursery at 4.10. A son of War Command, he caught my eye at Newbury last time and, while he only finished ninth, he would have been closer with a clearer run. Inclined to race keenly, he will hopefully settle better in a strongly run race and prove better than his opening mark of 75. Drawn 12, he is likely to be dropped in early on by Liam Jones and will need luck in running. However, I am hoping he will reward each-way support.