The opening day of Glorious Goodwood featured three Group races with the highlight Group I Goodwood Cup (2m) won in commanding fashion by comeback staying king Kyprios, who set a new course record, while veteran 24 year-old sire Oasis Dream also made an impact.
Trained by Aidan O’Brien and ridden by Ryan Moore, Kyprios backed up from his last start win in the Group I Royal Ascot Gold Cup to add another elite victory to his tally.
The blueblood six year-old son of Galileo has overcome injury and a subsequent serious illness last year to return to peak form and made a procession of this when romping clear to win by four lengths.
“I thought there would be pace with Al Qareem, he's usually a free-going horse. It took him a while to get Gregory but I thought we would go along today,” said Ryan Moore.
“He stays well, so I was going to be forward anyway and it was all very smooth. The only thing that happened was we slipped on the top turn, and I was on the back foot then and dropped away from the horse I wanted to take me into the race. But he still got there with two to run, he was going very easily and was a little idle in front, but it's obviously a tremendous performance.”
Kyprios ran a course record for the two mile trip in taking his overall record to 12 wins and two seconds from 16 starts and Aidan O’Brien was full praise for the stallion who is thoroughly enjoying his return to elite racing.
Bred and raced by Coolmore and Moyglare Stud, Kyprios is the last foal of blue hen Polished Gem (Danehill), a remarkable mare that has had 10 to the races, all of them winners, eight of them stakeswinners, three of them Group One winners and four of them crowned Champions in various seasons:
Search for a Song (Galileo) G1
Free Eagle (High Chaparral) G1
Custom Cut (Notnowcato) G2
Sapphire (Medicean) G2
Valac (Dark Angel) G3
Falcon Eight (Galileo) G3
Amma Grace (Galileo) Listed
The Group II Vintage Stakes (7f) for the juveniles was won by the Godolphin owned Oasis Dream colt Aomori City, who scored by a length and three-quarters over Pinatubo colt Wolf of Badenoch.
Trained by Charlie Appleby and ridden by William Buick, Aomori City won on debut in June before finishing third in a Group II at Newmarket before stepping up in trip to score his second win.
Aomori City was purchased for €260,000 from the Deauville August Yearling Sale by Godolphin and is the best of two winners from Setsuko, an unraced Shamardal half-sister to Group III Soleil Marin.
He is the 136th stakes-winner for veteran sire Oasis Dream, who is 24 and stood at Juddmonte Farms this year at a fee of €15,000. Oasis Dream also featured as the broodmare sire for the next Group winner on the card Audience.
The Group II Lennox Stakes (7f) was won by the Cheveley Park homebred Iffraaj gelding Audience, who showed his class with a dominant four length win.
Trained by John and Thady Gosden, Audience won the Group I Lockinge Stakes back in May and gave Rab Havlin an easy steer when coasting home to win as he pleased.
With five wins and seven placings from 15 starts, Audience is a half-brother to Group III winners Esquire and Dark Lady and is the best of six winners from stakes-winning Oasis Dream mare Ladyship, a daughter of Pivotal’s dual Group I winner Peeress, who also won the Lockinge Stakes among her seven victories.
Audience is by influential sire Iffraaj, who shuttled to New Zealand for a number of seasons earlier in his career and is making an impact through his sire sons including Wootton Bassett, whose first Australian runners will hit tracks in the spring.
