G1 winners Limato and Alice Springs headline 46 entries for the £300,000 Group Two Qatar Lennox Stakes, run over seven furlongs on the opening day of the Qatar Goodwood Festival, Tuesday 1 August.
JUN 29th 2017
Competitive field go forward for the Qatar Lennox Stakes
Limato stormed to victory in last season's Group 1 Darley July Cup at Newmarket before going on to another impressive win for trainer Henry Candy in the Group 1 Qatar Prix de la Foret at Chantilly, France, in October.
Alice Springs also scored at Group 1 level at Newmarket's July meeting in 2016, annexing the mile Falmouth Stakes, and the four-year-old filly returned to the Suffolk course in October to take the Group 1 Sun Chariot Stakes on the Rowley Mile course.
Her trainer Aidan O'Brien is responsible for eight contenders, with Group 1 St James's Palace Stakes runner-up Lancaster Bomber and Spirit Of Valor, second in the Group 3 Jersey Stakes, also entered.
In another huge boost to the Qatar Goodwood Festival's burgeoning international profile, three-year-old Bound For Nowhere, fourth in the six-furlong Group 1 Commonwealth Cup at Royal Ascot last week, could be a first Goodwood runner for US trainer Wesley Ward, who is likely to enter several of his Ascot runners across the week.
Godolphin has taken the last two renewals of the Qatar Lennox Stakes with Toormore (2015), now in the care of Charlie Appleby having formerly been with Richard Hannon, and the Charlie Hills-trained Dutch Connection (2016). Both horses could bid to become only the second dual winner of the race after Nayyir, successful in 2002 and 2003,
A total nine Godolphin contenders also includes last year's runner-up Home Of The Brave (Hugo Palmer), plus the John Gosden-trained pair of Richard Pankhurst and Laugh Aloud, who was a non-runner at Royal Ascot after an impressive win in the G3 Princess Elizabeth Stakes at Epsom Downs on June 3.
Al Jazi (Francois Rohaut FR) has winning form at Goodwood's premier meeting already. The four-year-old Canford Cliffs filly, owned by Al Shaqab Racing, landed the seven-furlong Group 3 L'Ormarins Queens Plate Stakes at the Qatar Goodwood Festival in 2016.
Rohaut commented: "The plan is to bring Al Jazi back to Goodwood for the Qatar Goodwood Festival. She won well there last year, so we have entered her in the Qatar Lennox Stakes and will also enter her again in the L'Ormarins Queens Plate Stakes."
Tasleet (William Haggas) and Librisa Breeze (Dean Ivory) may step up in trip after finishing second and fourth respectively in the Diamond Jubilee Stakes.