Dave Nevison's top tips for Friday: Fighter can prove a knockout

Glorious Goodwood rolls on and I am looking forward to getting back after two great days at Galway, a meeting and city I would highly recommend for a racing trip away.

Conditions look ideal for Battaash in his bid for a third win in the King George Qatar Stakes on Friday and he should easily defy his Group One penalty, while Ryan Moore will be hoping to get the better of Frankie Dettori, even momentarily, as they have a head to head in the Glorious Stakes.

Here are my best bets for Thursday. Best of luck.

Looking down the runners for this terrific mile handicap sends shivers down my spine as my two bêtes noires both show up in the same race.

Beat Le Bon drove me to despair and I rue the day I saw him in the paddock at Newbury on his debut and thought he looked like a Guineas winner.

I was with him until I could suffer no longer and gave up on him just before he started winning!

Escobar is the other and, while I am not as bothered about missing him when he won at 11-4 last time after a few goes on him early in the season, the fact that he turns up here with a strong chance is absolutely no surprise.

I definitely had the right idea about both these runners but picked my time to be with them very badly indeed.

Hopefully, I have latched on to Game Player at a more rewarding point in his career. This horse might have beaten Club Wexford at Ayr in June if that horse had not enjoyed a very canny ride and Game Player had got going a little sooner.

In any case, the form probably looks better than it did at the time given the winner's subsequent form.

There have been several good races Game Player could have run in since so it looks as though Roger Varian has saved him to get in this contest at the bottom end of the weights. He has good course form and I believe he will be suited by a fast-run, big-field handicap.

Stall one for a horse likely to race mid-division at best means it will be a race full of anguish as his jockey, Andrea Atzeni, will undoubtedly be forced into making at least one big decision in the race, but the winner has broken from stall one in four of the past 18 renewals of this race, so he has better options than most.

Having said that, I note that the winner has been drawn in stall three on three occasions, and Beat Le Bon has bagged that draw!

This is a low-grade sprint handicapper, but he has been lingering on a winnable mark, and has not had the luck of the draw or got the breaks on his last couple of starts.

He ended up in the middle of the track a couple of starts ago when beaten by Boudica Bay and it was a similar story last time.

He has got a plum position next to the stands’ side rail on Friday and, looking at the stall positions, it is easy to see a pace battle three off the rail and, in an ideal world, Jeffrey Harris getting a clear run through late in the day.

Jim Goldie is using 7lb claimer Corey Madden quite a bit in these type of races and I have not noticed any negatives, so there are plenty of positives for a good run at a price.

This one clipped heels and fell last time he ran on the Flat, but has improved steadily over hurdles since then and, if he can translate that improvement across to the flat, he could be very well in here despite top weight.

He is 2lb lower than his last winning turf mark and probably should be higher than the 109 he now runs off over hurdles as he seemed to be given a lot to do last time.

The trip and ground will be fine and Becky Smith is a positive jockey booking in these races, while his trainer, Jedd O’Keeffe, has done this column a couple of favours with Only Spoofing and Jazeel recently so I am confident of a big run.