Girolamo at Glorious Goodwood

German-trained horses have already won three group races in England this season - the best haul ever- and Girolamo (Peter Schiergen/ Andrasch Starke) can make it four at 15.35 CET when he contests the Group Three Gordon Stakes on the first day of Glorious Goodwood. He was a close third in the German Derby a month ago, form given a big boost by Pastorius on Sunday, and is the highest-rated of the seven runners here. Five of the six British runners are entered in the St.Leger with Michelangelo (John Gosden( William Buick) and Frankel´s full brother Noble Mission (Henry Cecil/ Tom Queally) looking the main dangers.

As always, Goodwood has a great card for the opening day of its top fixture, and there are two more group fraces, the Lennox Stakes over 7 furlongs at 16.10 and the Molecomb for speedy 2yo´s at 16.45. Richard Hannon normally dominates the 2yo races here but we prefer Morawij (Roger Varian/ Neil Callan) and Jadanna (James Given/ Frankie Dettori) in the Molecomb, however we expect Hannon to take the Lennox with course specialist Libranno (Richard Hughes), who has Chachamaidee (Cecil/ Queally) and the 3yo Foxtrot Romeo (Bryan Smart/ Tom Eaves) - runner-up in the Irish 2000 Guineas - to beat.

Hannon has 4 runners in the 2yo maiden at 17.15 and Hughes partners Millers Wharf, which is presumably the stable´s main hope. Hannon and Hughes also have a good chance of taking the opening 10 furlongs handicap at 15.00 with Cai Shen, but like all the handiaps here this has a big field and looks very tricky; we also expect top-weight Retrieve (Saeed bin Suroor) and bottom-weight Las Verglas Star (Richard Fahey/ Paul Hanagan) to run well here. In the mile handicap at 17.50 low numbers will probably be favoured, in which case we select Askaud (Scott Dixon/ Queally), who likes this track and is drawn 2,