Constantinople to Land Goodwood Group Three

The Aidan O’Brien trained Constantinople is already a winner at this Group Three level, and he comes here looking to land his second group contest. This is a good field, but nothing better than what you would expect from Group Three level and I think he is more than capable of picking up another success here.

The horse could not be in better form right now, he is showing up well and progressing through the ranks. He won his Group Three at The Curragh back in May and he followed that up with an excellent run at Royal Ascot. That was only a handicap but he was off top weight there, and it will work out as being one of the most competitive handicaps we see this season. In some ways, it could turn out that the run at Royal Ascot, even though it was a handicap and he finished second, could be better than the Group Three win he had a run before.

He’s officially been put up 5lb for the Royal Ascot second, which takes him to a mark of 110 and that puts him as the join top rated horse in the race with Spanish Mission and Jalmoud. However, I think the profile of Constantinople and his run last time out makes me think that he is better than his rating, and there is more to come from him. He’s shown great improvement this season, which started with a run in a Cork handicap, and now sees him at Goodwood in a Group Three on the back of a Group Three win and a valiant second in a Royal Ascot handicap off top weight.

This is a good race, but nothing to be worried about at this kind of level, and I think what we saw last time out from Constantinople would be enough to take this if he was able to repeat his Royal Ascot run. There is a chance he will go better than that given the improvement he has shown this season, which would be more than enough to take the race.

Constantinople is the horse to be with in the Gordon Stakes for me.