Glorious Goodwood day one: Stradivarius the star of the show

Stradivarius maintained his incredible unbeaten run to continue the golden summer of John Gosden and Frankie Dettori in the Qatar Goodwood Cup.

Having already won the Oaks, Grand Prix de Saint-Cloud, Eclipse, Prix Jean Prat and Irish Oaks – as well as a memorable King George with Enable at the weekend – Gosden and Dettori are simply irresistible.

Of course, Stradivarius had already added to their Group One haul in the Gold Cup at Royal Ascot, but yet again it seemed plenty felt he might be beatable, despite his starting price of 4-5.

Dettori tracked Melbourne Cup winner Cross Counter and quickened impressively to hit the front – although just when it looked over the Italian started to salute the crowd and the bonny chestnut began to pull himself up as Dee Ex Bee lunged after him.

Thankfully for his supporters he comfortably hung on to become just the second three-time winner of the race, and is now a long odds-on favourite for the Lonsdale Cup, which, should he win, would mean a second Weatherbys Hamilton Stayers’ Million bonus.

Sir Dancealot was also a repeat winner, in the Qatar Lennox Stakes, to provide veteran trainer David Elsworth with his first winner since April.

Gerald Mosse had him settled in last place and knew what was underneath him, sweeping around the field to beat the favourite Hey Gaman by a length.

Pinatubo is now as short as 9-4 for next year’s 2000 Guineas after blitzing a strong field in the Qatar Vintage Stakes.

Winner of the Chesham Stakes at Royal Ascot, where he beat Aidan O’Brien’s Lope Y Fernandez by just over three lengths, he extended that to 10 as the Ballydoyle runner toiled in third.

Despite being billed as ‘Glorious’, the five-day fixture looked anything but before racing, with heavy rain and strong winds. Thankfully, while far from turning into pleasant conditions, it did at least dry up to enable racegoers to take advantage of one of the most picturesque courses in the world.

Charlie Appleby’s Pinatubo arrived at the start of the Vintage Stakes as a Royal Ascot winner defending an unbeaten three-race record. He left the track as the red-hot favourite for next year’s 2000 Guineas, after a quite staggering display. Widely viewed beforehand as the best juvenile contest of the season to date, he blew some smart rivals away, winning by five lengths with the same distance back to the third.

It has been an incredible couple of seasons for John Gosden’s Stradivarius and he is unbeaten in eight races now – and on the verge of a second £1 million bonus – but after quickening smartly, as soon as Frankie Dettori eased up on him he soon began to slow up and Dee Ex Bee was closing rapidly at the line.

Danny Tudhope lost his advantage in the race to be champion jockey on Monday, but he started the meeting in the best possible fashion with a surprise 25-1 win on Fayez for his boss, David O’Meara. Entering the final furlong he was stuck behind a wall of horses, with many more in front than behind, but Tudhope went for a brave run against the rail and in the end ran out a snug winner.

Punters will no doubt be hoping Gosden and Dettori’s good form continues, as Too Darn Hot is the headline act on day two. Last year’s champion juvenile eventually got back to winning ways in France when dropped to seven furlongs, but he has ground to make up on his Royal Ascot conqueror, Circus Maximus. Could we have another epic battle between Dettori and Ryan Moore? There is also the Molecomb Stakes, where John Quinn’s Liberty Beach takes on the American challenger Maven over the flying five furlongs.