Well-backed 6/1 favourite Temporize proved ideally suited by the step up to an extended two and a half miles in the Coral Goodwood Handicap as he ran out a comfortable winner for Dorset trainer Syd Hosie.
The four-year-old, who joined Hosie from Charlie Johnston last month, travelled strongly under Luke Morris before seeing his race out with real tenacity, backing up a narrow defeat at Ascot last Friday.
The winning margin was a length and a quarter from the staying-on Robert Johnson (7/1), who was five lengths clear of third-placed Tronador (13/2).
Hosie said: “I was confident today. I thought the step up in trip would actually suit Temporize, so when he got to the front, I thought, ‘he’s not there too early today’. He stays.
"This was Temporize's third run for me. We went to Newbury first up, but it didn't happen, so we upped him in trip at Ascot and it nearly happened and today we upped him again and it's happened.
“We went to Newmarket sales three weeks ago and this horse was boxed in row Z down the bottom. I said to Paul [Moore, owner], ‘we need to go and see this Johnston horse’. He said, ‘it’s miles away!’ We ended up getting the golf buggy back, but we did buy him. We had a kitty of 80,000gns, so we were nearly 50,000gns in credit, happy days.
“I now have a very happy owner. This is Paul’s first horse with us. I am setting myself up for a trip I guess. Now we might go for the Cesarewitch, but we would love to go hurdling with him one day."
Morris said: “I was able to get a lovely smooth trip round. Sometimes this race can be a bit of a rough race, where a lot of horses can race freely and it can be a bit of carnage in the middle. But he got away from the start smartly and I was always keen just to ride him very straightforward, keeping it nice and simple. It went very much like clockwork.
“This lad, he’s an ex-Johnston horse and is just very solid and very honest. Probably after two and a half miles in this ground, there wasn’t a huge amount left. But to be fair to him, it’s his third run in just over two weeks, so he is obviously very resilient and very tough.”
On the ground conditions, he said: “I thought it was good to soft ground, but it’s just very sticky and very holding. It is taking plenty of getting and where it’s drying out there, it’s just getting to that specialist ground where they very much love it or hate it.”
Jockey Paula Muir said of Robert Johnson: “He is just so unlucky, he was gaining every stride. He is not a very strong traveller in these races, so he does make it hard work, but when he does pick them up, he does it nicely. He is a very nice horse, and I am very grateful to be on him at this meeting. The ground was good to soft – for him it was perfect."
Tronador’s owner Martin Wasylocha said: “It is great to be in the placed spot here! Joe [Fanning] would have liked to have been a little bit closer. Unfortunately, the ground was probably a little too soft for him to travel the way we would have liked, but he stayed on brilliantly. Tronador tries his hardest, he kept plugging on from 2f out. I'd love to come back next year if the ground was more like normal as he'd be able to lay up with them a lot better. The staying power might help then. We have had a lovely day."
1.50pm Coral Goodwood Handicap
1 Temporize (Acorn Builders Dorset Ltd) Syd Hosie 4-8-05 Luke Morris 6/1F
2 Robert Johnson (M Volgan) Philip Kirby 5-8-02 Paula Muir (3) 7/1
3 Tronador (Martin Wasylocha) Gordon Elliott IRE 7-8-02 Joe Fanning 13/2
17 ran
Syd Hosie – 1st Qatar Goodwood Festival winner
Luke Morris – 3rd Qatar Goodwood Festival winner
