Favourites prevail in the Goodwood sunshine

By The Newsroom
Published 26th Sep 2018, 17:21 BST
Updated 27th Sep 2018, 21:31 BST
Gabr and Jim Crowley - nearest the camera - on their way to winning the day's feature race at Goodwood / Picture by Malcolm WellsGabr and Jim Crowley - nearest the camera - on their way to winning the day's feature race at Goodwood / Picture by Malcolm Wells
Gabr and Jim Crowley - nearest the camera - on their way to winning the day's feature race at Goodwood / Picture by Malcolm Wells
It was a gorgeous afternoon for Goodwood's penultimate meeting of the season - and the favourites certainly enjoyed themselves with five of them victorious.

The 4/7 market leader Pablo Escobarr set the tone for the afternoon in winning the opener, the Heineken 0.0%/EBF Future Stayers' Maiden Stakes, by three-quarters of a length, with Ryan Moore on board for William Haggas.

Gabr, ridden by Jim Crowley for Sir Michael Stoute, continued the theme with a victory by the same margin after starting the 6/4 favourite in the British Stallion Studs EBF Foundation Stakes, the feature race of the day.

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And it was a favourites' hat-trick when Elasia (3/1 )won the TBA #thisfillycan Fillies' Handicap thanks to a nicely-timed charge by Andrea Atzeni on the Roger Varian-trained three-year-old

Pablo Escobarr, ridden by Ryan Moore, wins the Goodwood opener / Picture by Malcolm WellsPablo Escobarr, ridden by Ryan Moore, wins the Goodwood opener / Picture by Malcolm Wells
Pablo Escobarr, ridden by Ryan Moore, wins the Goodwood opener / Picture by Malcolm Wells

In a thrilling finish to the Birra Moretti Handicap that needed a look at the photo, 7/2 favourite Master Carpenter gave Oisin Murphy another success in a decent list of Goodwood victories for him this season, this one for trainer Rod Millman, who'd had a very long wait since his last winner on the Downs.

And the fifth outright favourite of the day to win the spoils was 9/4 chance Captain Lars who claimed the Heineken UK Apprentice Handicap under Pierre-Louis Jamin, for trainer Archie Watson.