Goodwood Tips & Betting Offers for Day 1 of the Glorious Goodwood Festival

Glorious Goodwood begins this afternoon so we have collated the best tips and betting offers for the first day of action on the Sussex Downs.

The Al Shaqab Goodwood Cup Stakes (15:05) is the centrepiece today with ITV Racing showing five of the seven races on ITV1 from 1-4pm. Our expert has picked a trio of runners for the terrestrial action on day one of Glorious Goodwood.

Tip 1: English Oak - Chesterfield Cup Handicap (1:20) @ 16/1

The handicapper has taken a bit of a chance with former Royal Ascot winner ENGLISH OAK as the Ed Walker-trained five-year-old prepares to tackle the 1m 2f Chesterfield Cup Handicap that opens proceedings today.

The Wathnan Racing runner won the Buckingham Palace Stakes in decisive fashion at Ascot over 7 furlongs last summer off a mark of 99 having been well fancied to do so.

He went up to a rating of 108 and stayed there after contesting four Group and Listed races in the second half of last season, including at this venue.

He began this campaign off the same perch but now finds himself 11lb lower after toiling in his first four starts of the year.

He was dropped in class and went up in trip last time out at Hamilton and ran a pleasing race to finish second. He'll need to build on that again, but has the excellent Christophe Soumillon in the saddle and could be nicely treated if he sees out this trip.

Tip 2: Jonquil - Lennox Stakes (2:30) @ 3/1

The Lennox Stakes is a Group 2 contest over 7f for older horses and Kinross and Audience are leading contenders for Ralph Beckett and the Gosden team respectively.

Audience gets a pair of cheekpieces fitted and needs a sizeable rebound in the headgear if he's to win this for the second year running, while Kinross has figures of 1213 in this race and ran a blinder behind the re-opposing Ten Bob Tony at Haydock last time, but the eight-year-old isn't getting any younger.

The last three-year-old winner of this race was Sandrine for Andrew Balding and he is aiming JONQUIL at the target now.

The Lope De Vega colt won the Greenham over this trip at Newbury before an agonising French 2000 Guineas second in May, and he was just outpaced in the Commonwealth Cup at Royal Ascot over 6f.

His jockey Oisin Murphy is in cracking form and rides Goodwood better than most, so they look to have strong claims as one of a trio of three-year-olds getting weight from their older rivals.

Tip 3: Illinois – Goodwood Cup (3:05) @ 6/4

There aren't many issues with Aidan O'Brien's ILLINOIS and he has been given a vote of confidence from jockey Ryan Moore that he can give weight and a beating to his stablemate Scandinavia.

The latter looked good in the Bahrain Trophy Stakes at Newmarket earlier this month but that was a Group 3 event in which he was able to sprint for home and he's going in against some seasoned rivals in today's contest.

Illinois won well at Chester on his return in May and has since finished behind Trawlerman in the Gold Cup at Royal Ascot, seven lengths clear of the rest.

He's a hugely reliable sort, yet to finish outside of the first three in 11 career starts, and this two-mile trip should be ideal.

The older horses surely won't topple him if he's at his best and Scandinavia will need to be really special if he's to join four-time winner Stradivarius as the only three-year-old Goodwood Cup winners in the last 35 years.