World number one Baaeed will not face QIPCO 2000 Guineas winner Coroebus when he bids to extend his unbeaten run to nine races in Wednesday's £1 million Qatar Sussex Stakes, which is part of the 35-race QIPCO British Champions Series as well as the Breeders' Cup Challenge Series.
However, with last year's winner Alcohol Free among four more Group 1 winners in a field of seven, and on a course renowned for its upsets, it would be risky to assume success to be a foregone conclusion.
The meeting between Baaeed and Coroebus, in what is traditionally the first big clash of the generations at a mile, was much anticipated and Charlie Appleby spoke very positively about his colt at Ascot on Saturday.
However, on Monday morning he tweeted: “Unfortunately Coroebus will not run in this week's Sussex Stakes @Goodwood_Races. He was lame in his box this morning and after examination was found to have an abscess in his left hind pastern. This is being treated and he will now target the G1 Prix Jacques le Marois.”
Fortunately, the strength in depth among the 3-year-olds at Godolphin's Moulton Paddocks is such that Appleby can still call upon one of this year's Classic-winning colts, Modern Games, while dual Group 1 juvenile winner Angel Bleu adds to the 3-year-olds' hand significantly.
Baaeed was a very impressive Group 3 winner over the Sussex Stakes course and distance 12 months ago. He has since raced exclusively at the highest level and won another four times, on the last three occasions in races won also by the mighty Frankel on his way to a second Sussex Stakes win ten years ago.
William Haggas is itching to see him over a mile and a quarter in next month's Juddmonte International Stakes, where Frankel also made the step up in trip, and so this could well be his last race over a mile.
Baaeed was his usual imperious self when despatching old rival Real World in the Queen Anne Stakes at Royal Ascot last time. Most of the superlatives have already been deployed in describing his stunning rise to the top, so Haggas is finding it hard to add to what he has already said about the Sea The Stars colt, who promises to become a cornerstone of the Shadwell Estate operation at stud for many years to come.
Speaking at Ascot on Saturday, he simply said: “There's not a lot more I can say that I haven't already said, but all has gone well since the Queen Anne and we are nearly there.
“If all goes well at Goodwood and again in the Juddmonte we probably won't see him at a mile again, but I don't know. If he runs in the Juddmonte and gets beaten through lack of stamina then of course we might come back to a mile.”
Modern Games signed off as a juvenile with success in the Grade 1 Breeders' Cup Juvenile Turf and resumed in similar vein when beating Texas in the Poule d'Essai des Poulains at Longchamp. A possible non-stayer when third to Valdeni in the Prix Du Jockey Club, he was most recently a close fifth behind Tenebrism in the seven-furlong Prix Jean Prat.
He is a worthy contender, and Appleby might just as easily have been talking about him rather than Coroebus when he said on Saturday that “as a Dubawi what he achieved in the first half of the season was always a bonus, as Dubawis are always at their best in the second half of the season”.
Angel Bleu has been slow coming to hand, but he won two Group 1s in a month last October and is now pleasing again. Ralph Beckett's Irish Derby winner Westover was well below his best on Saturday, but Angel Bleu is already a Group 2 winner here, having won the Vintage Stakes 12 months ago. Reunited with Frankie Dettori, for whom he won all three Group races, he can outrun his odds.
Beckett said: “The ground might be on the quick side for him but he loves it at Goodwood and I'm much happier with him now than I was. A bit of rain would help, but I don't think that's likely.”
Last year's winner Alcohol Free returned to her best in style against a field of top international sprinters in the Darley July Cup last time, reversing Platinum Jubilee form with the principals from that race, Naval Crown, Artorius and Creative Force for a fourth Group 1 win.
The ground was soft when she beat the QIPCO 2000 Guineas and St James's Palace winner Poetic Flare here 12 months ago, but her July Cup win came on quick going and so she is versatile in terms of both trip and ground. When her owner/breeder Jeff Smith won the 1984 Sussex Stakes with the brilliant Chief Singer, he too had won the July Cup the time before.
Andrew Balding said: “It took her a couple of runs to find her feet this year but she's in great form and she looks very well. She won the race last year, and while this looks a very strong renewal it wasn't a bad one when she beat Poetic Flare.
“She comes here off the back of a really good win over six furlongs in the July Cup, so we are looking forward to it. It will be different ground this year, but they usually do a wonderful job at Goodwood and I'm sure that will be the case again.”
Asked if he thought Alcohol Free might beat Baaeed he replied: “At Goodwood it's not always enough to be the best horse as you need luck too. We wouldn't want to win that way, but it's a horse race at the end of the day.”
Aidan O'Brien, whose five previous winners of the Sussex Stakes include Giant's Causeway (2000) and Rock Of Gibraltar (2002), saddles Order Of Australia, who was fifth here behind Alcohol Free last year.
The 4-year-old led the stable's famous one-two-three in the Breeders' Cup Mile in 2020 but he hasn't won at the top level since and suffered a hairline fracture of a fetlock in the corresponding race 12 months later. He was back to form when making all for a second win in the Group 2 Minstrel Stakes, and O'Brien is looking forward to quicker ground at Goodwood this time.
O'Brien said: “He won nicely the last day at the Curragh and is in good form. He won the same race last year before the Sussex, but then at Goodwood it was a bit soft for him. It will be better ground this year hopefully and that will suit him.”
Japan, which enjoyed Group 1 success at Goodwood with Deirdre in the Nassau Stakes in 2019, will be represented by the Godolphin Mile winner Bathrat Leon. The colt needs to improve, but his trainer Yoshito Yahagi has made such an impact on the international stage – in the Breeders' Cup and at Riyadh, as well as at Meydan – that he cannot be dismissed.
Yahagi told Goodwood media: “I went to Goodwood a long time ago and I really enjoyed the atmosphere, so that's why I selected the Sussex Stakes. He arrived in England on June 23, and having travelled to Dubai before he didn't have any issues at all.
“Last year in the spring the jockey fell off during the Tokyo Mile, which meant the horse wasn't in good order in the autumn. He then started to improve and that's why I think he performed well in Dubai, although he wasn't in perfect order. He has to improve again though against the Sussex Stakes field.”
Recent Summer Mile winner Chindit, who was well held behind Baaeed in both the Lockinge Stakes and the Queen Anne, completes the line-up.
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