Punch stays in the front line

There was nothing very glorious about Goodwood yesterday, save for the three and a half minutes of honest toil which won the Goodwood Cup for Persian Punch. Half an inch of rain had turned the home straight to slop by the time the big, ageing chestnut led his field around the final turn.

Most of the opposition were already beaten, but Double Honour, five years his junior, caught and passed him with three furlongs to run. Then he, too, was passed in turn as Persian Punch found more, and for a few moments, the punters' hearts at least were warm.

Double Honour was not born when Persian Punch finished third to Grey Shot in the Goodwood Cup in 1996, and the normal rule of racing is that the benefits of grit and experience diminish with age.

Stayers, though, have laws of their own, which is probably why many racegoers are so fond of them. Persian Punch was run out of the Gold Cup in the final furlong at Ascot last month, and his victory here was won not simply with the stubbornness of middle-age, but also with a bounce from the stalls which would have done credit to a two-year-old.

Richard Quinn, Persian Punch's jockey, stole two or three lengths in the opening strides and, even with almost two miles to run, this was quite a start to give away on the softening ground.

A hundred yards later, he was cruising and, at the top of the hill with a mile left, all but Double Honour had started to drop away. He did well to reach the leader but had nothing left to answer his second kick.

"I was delighted when he came past me," Quinn said. "If he'd come past me at the furlong pole I'd have been worried, but he takes a little bit of time to warm up and he doesn't get beaten in a battle very often. It gave him some new purpose, being headed."

Persian Punch may have little left to prove after his last two runs but David Elsworth, his trainer, will not feel that his record is quite complete without a Group One success.

"It would be fitting if he could win a Group One," he said. "He's been second in the Prix du Cadran and second in the Gold Cup, but we've got a chance because there's still the Cadran at the Arc meeting. Before that, he could go to Doncaster or for the Irish St Leger."

Front-runners always go well at Goodwood, because they can build up plenty of momentum as they come down the hill, but when the going is soft, it is even more difficult for horses to come from off the pace. It proved impossible in the day's big handicap, the William Hill Mile, which was won from the front by Riberac, with the horses who were second, third and fourth at the home turn running on to fill the frame.

Riberac was running for the first time since rearing up in the stalls before the Magnet Cup at York and needed to pass a stalls test at Thirsk last week before she was allowed to take her place yesterday. From a prime draw in 19, Kevin Darley soon had her in front, and what is often one of the tightest handicaps of the year was effectively over.

Bookmakers reacted to yesterday's draw for tomorrow's Stewards' Cup at Goodwood on Saturday by cutting the prices of David Nicholls' pair, Undeterred and Continent, for the six-furlong dash. Undeterred (drawn 23) and Continent (27) are both best-priced at 7-1 for the big handicap. High stalls proved almost universally popular when numbers were pulled out of a drum at a lunchtime ceremony.