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Glorious Goodwood Festival Trainer Pointers

Photo of John Burke John BurkeJuly 28, 2015
1,130 2 minutes read

The end of July and the beginning of August see two of the season’s great racing festivals at ‘Glorious Goodwood’ and over the Irish Sea at Galway.

 

The ‘Glorious’ comes off the festival name this year with the start of a ten year sponsorship of the meeting by Qatar whose sponsorship is the biggest single deal in British horse racing. The Festival’s two feature races are the Sussex Stakes over a mile and should see yet another “Duel on the Downs between Gleneagles and French challenger Solow. The other Group I is the Nassau Stakes over 1m 2f for fillies and mares. Both races have benefitted from increased prize money courtesy of the Qatar sponsorship.

 

The highlights of five great days racing from a betting perspective are the Steward’s Cup over the one of the sharpest 6f in the country. This annual cavalry charge will no doubt provide racegoers and TV watchers with a great spectacle as ever. The other big field handicap at the meeting is the Betfred Mile and both it and the Stewards Cup will provide punters with plenty of betting opportunities.

 

Mark Johnston At Glorious Goodwood

 

You will often see or hear in the media that Mark Johnston has a great record at the Festival so I thought I would dig a little deeper to see if that is correct.

 

This is Mark Johnston’s record since 2010:

 

Wins Runners % Profit/Loss SP A/E
16 134 11.94 +27.71 1.13

 

At least you wouldn’t have lost money by backing his horses blind but it’s hardly a stellar record either. I dug a little deeper and looked at his record in handicaps in the same period to see if there was a more profitable angle:

 

Wins Runners % Profit/Loss SP A/E
12 96 12.5 +26.38 1.23

 

It didn’t really improve things but it does get more interesting if we take his record in handicaps since 2012:

 

Wins Runners % Profit/Loss SP A/E
11 59 18.64 +56.38 1.72

 

Yearly breakdown since 2010:

 

2014 – 4 wins/18 bets +22.22

2013 – 2 wins/23 bets -5

2012 – 5 wins/19 bets +34.38

2011 – 0 wins/17 bets -17

2010 – 1 win/20 bets -13

 

What sort of year will Mark Johnston have in 2015? It could go either way. Don’t get caught up in the media hype but his runners have to be respected.

 

Trainers To Watch In Handicaps!

 

Unlike July’s Newmarket Festival where two trainers Mark Johnston and Richard Fahey whose runners had to be kept onside, didn’t let their followers down this year with both having nice priced handicap winners at meeting, Goodwood is more competitive and there are not as many strong trainer stats to go to war with. The sample sizes are small but here are some trainers whose handicappers I will be keeping a close eye on this year. Since 2010 this is their records in handicaps.

 

Firstly, a trainer who has been the most profitable to follow since 2010 and had two big handicap winners last year at 7/1 & 20/1!

 

Dandy Nicholls

 

Wins Runners % Profit/Loss SP A/E
6 50 12 +59 1.81

 

Dandy Nicholls’ does admittedly send a big team to the meeting but you have to have his runners on your betting shortlists particularly for the big field sprint handicaps!

 

Other trainers with interesting stats are:

 

Brian Gubby – 2 wins/3 bets +37

 

Jeremy Noseda – 3 wins/7 bets +30.75

 

Hugo Palmer – 2 wins/5 bets +7

 

Robert Cowell – 2 wins/10 bets +6

 

I hope the above trainer stats will aid your winner finding at this years Qatar Goodwood Festival.

Photo of John Burke John BurkeJuly 28, 2015
1,130 2 minutes read
Photo of John Burke

John Burke

I have a MA in International Politics and having spent a number of years working in political campaigning but I eventually I realised that politics was not the world where I wanted to work I had been interested in horse racing since the late 1980s but in the early years I was merely just betting and watching racing like most people as a bit of fun and a hobby, then the hobby becomes a passion and that’s what happened to me with horse racing. I soon realised that to make money from my hobby I had to learn as much as I could about the sport and betting in general. The whole process took time but after a number of successful years of betting, I decided in 2011 to take the plunge, gave up my full time day job and decided to bet on horse racing as a part time business and I haven’t looked back since. I like to specialise in the better class of races and I love to solve the puzzles posed by big field handicaps the latter races often provide punters with great value betting opportunities. Whilst most of my time is spent reviewing previous races I like to keep things as simple as possible as even the biggest field handicaps can usually be pruned down to half a dozen strong contenders with the right sort of approach.
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