Goodwood tips: Dave Nevison seeks full house after two winners

The  “Duel on the Downs” looked a very fair description of the Qatar Sussex Stakes feature on Wednesday until Rosallion was ruled out on Tuesday.

I am happy to watch the Group One feature without getting financially involved. 

The massive World Pool prices will be featuring on Racing TV all week, so I will be keeping a close eye on those, looking for outsiders that may be massive value compared to the fixed-odds bookmakers. 

I am very hopeful of my tips in the handicaps, starting with one in the opener. 

Wearing the hood for the first time looks an obvious move for French Duke after he made life difficult for William Buick last time out at the King George V Handicap at Ascot. 

Despite pulling far too hard and not settling, Roger Varian’s colt still ran very well to be sixth in that top class handicap despite making his ground up far too quickly and wide. 

French Duke wasted energy before and during that race so if the headgear has the desired effect and settles him down a little, then he should have a great chance here with trip, ground and draw no issue.  

 In an extremely tight handicap, the Al Shaqab colours caught my eye as I always assume their horses are targeted at this meeting. 

Al Anoud is dropping back down in trip here after 12f at Pontefract clearly stretched her stamina. 

She won both her races as a juvenile, including over a very similar trip to Wednesday, and made a promising reappearance at Windsor when second to the useful Tony Montana (third in John Smith’s Cup) with a couple of subsequent winners finishing behind. 

Ralph Beckett has his yard in top form and a consequence of that Pontefract run means Al Anoud remains on a very winnable mark of 89.

David Menuisier has lots of entries at his local track, Goodwood, this week and has obviously targeted his string at this meeting. 

Metaverse was backed off the boards when a winning favourite at Newmarket last time out and is only 3lb higher here. 

He is is still lightly raced for a four-year-old handicapper and has proved ideally suited by 7f. He is still on the up and looks to have a decent draw in this competitive event. 

Tom Marquand taking over from William Buick is no hardship and I will be disappointed if Metaverse does not show up well in this finale.