Two top class performances

Day four of the Qatar Goodwood Festival was lit up by two stunning performances. Baaeed made it four out of four in the Group 3 Thoroughbred Stakes over a mile. William Haggas' colt had destroyed some smart rivals in Listed company at Newmarket earlier this month and produced a similar effort here on rain softened ground. Once again, the son of Sea The Stars wasn't the quickest into stride but he soon made up the ground and it was apparent some way from home that Jim Crowley had his rivals covered. Quickening up on the outside, he swept clear to win hard held by six and a half lengths. His trainer suggested afterwards that the full brother to Hukum has entries in the Jacques Le Marois, Celebration Mile and Prix du Moulin. Regardless of where he heads next, it will take a top-class horse to beat him. The QEII at Ascot in October was also mentioned afterwards but I am not sure he wants to run in a bog at the end of the season, which that meeting is invariably run on. Readers of Ahead On The Flat will be aware that William nominated the Shadwell Estate owned colt as his horse to follow at the start of the season - not a bad piece of foresight by the head of Somerville Lodge.

Suesa was one of my stronger fancies at Royal Ascot but the French trained filly raced too keenly and failed to handle the testing conditions in the Commonwealth Cup. However, the daughter of Night of Thunder bounced back in no uncertain terms in the Group 2 King George Stakes. Tackling five furlongs for the first time, the drop back in trip proved no obstacle as she beat some top-class rivals by upwards of three lengths. Sat in behind the leaders, William Buick's mount showed good acceleration to lead a furlong out before pulling clear. The Nunthorpe Stakes at York is the obvious next port of call but her connections expressed a word of warning that the three year old has already done a lot of travelling this year and she isn't guaranteed to head to Yorkshire next month. The Prix de L'Abbaye is likely to be her main target and there is every chance she will be kept in training as a four year old.

On Friday morning, I interviewed Tom Lacey for One Jump Ahead. The Herefordshire based handler tasted Grade 2 success last winter and he is particularly strong in the novice chase division for the new campaign. Tom, who sent out 34 winners last winter, has 9 winners on the board already this term and is understandably excited about the coming months. I will be conducting more interviews next week in between trips to Hamilton (Saturday), Carlisle (Monday), Pontefract (Wednesday) and Haydock Park (Saturday). I will be back to update the Diary shortly.