Update: we had a fabulous time on Saturday. It was a gorgeous day and the turf was in good shape other than (it was said) one “soft” area on one of the turns. We took the train from London to Chichester and a free shuttle up to Goodwood.
It’s so different than an American course … for starters it is far from flat, and not an oval so the horses get a good warmup just getting to the starting gate, beginning with a gallop past the stands. I like the emphasis on distance … yes, there was one 5 furlong sprint and two 7 furlong races for “novice” 3 year olds, but the emphasis was on mile+ lengths.
I was a bit surprised at how many fillies/mares were entered in “mixed” races … 3 YO fillies in particular seemed quite immature compared to their male counterparts. None of them did fabulously.
There were a couple of “old warhorses” there and one, a 9 year old, won his race.
I did not bet, which is just as well, as my favorites in the paddock before the races seemed primarily selected based on the criterion of “does this horse seem calm enough to make a good riding horse someday?” … which was not especially correlated with winning!
In the “too much excitement” category, one rider came off in the stretch when his horse clipped the heels of another horse. Horse just kept right on going until well past the finish line, when she realized her equine buddies had not come with her, and the jockey was fine. And then there was a drunken brawl amongst 25 … well, what would the Brits call them… young louts, maybe… which sent two people to hospital, one a security guard. That seemed to shock everyone. (But wow people drank a LOT.)
Anyway, highly recommended to anyone who ends up in the area!
