Halfway To Heaven can keep Ballydoyle bandwagon rolling
O’Brien will be seeking a 17th success at the highest level this year while Murtagh will be hoping to seal the Glorious Goodwood top jockey title after a raft of winners throughout the week.
The Ballydoyle duo have already bagged the Sussex Stakes with Henrythenavigator this week and Halfway To Heaven will try to make it a double as she steps up to 10 furlongs.
The Pivotal filly has been off the track since notching a gutsy win in the Irish 1000 Guineas and she demonstrated her credentials before that by finishing third behind top French filly Zarkava in their equivalent.
With her victory at the Curragh coming on rattling quick ground, Murtagh is not concerned by the prospect of fast conditions in Sussex.
“She won’t mind the ground. She likes good ground but a shower of rain would not do her any harm,” said Murtagh.
The sponsors make Halfway To Heaven their 4-1 second-favourite behind Coronation Stakes winner Lush Lashes.
Jim Bolger’s filly is the 13-8 market leader following her Royal meeting victory and previous demolition job in the Musidora Stakes at York.
Meanwhile, Roger Charlton served another ace by capturing the £150,000 totesport Mile for the second year in succession at Goodwood yesterday, this time with Prince Khalid Abdullah’s Fifteen Love.
Steve Drowne weaved a passage through a packed field to claim the valuable pot by a head from 4-1 favourite Masaalek.
Like Third Set who captured the totesport International prior to the Mile, the 5-1 winner had also landed another significant event when winning the Britannia at Royal Ascot.
And he kept the trend-followers happy when continuing the high-draw domination of the race on the Downs, with no horse since the turn of the century visiting the winner’s enclosure after breaking from stall 15 or below.
Charlton said: “That’s a good follow up for Third Set. I was concerned before the race that he may miss the break, but he broke well.
“It will be hard for him to win another handicap so we will have to try him in Listed or Group races now, and I’ll have to talk to Prince Khalid to try to keep him in the UK as he will ultimately go to America.”
Prolific made it third-time lucky on the Group Two stage with a deserved win in the Sir Tristram Ricketts Memorial Richmond Stakes.
The nippy juvenile had run with credit for the third in both the Norfolk at Royal Ascot and the July Stakes at Newmarket but conditions proved ideal on this occasion with rattling quick ground and a sound six furlongs.
All the money spoke for Brian Meehan’s Gallagher, the 7-2 favourite, and for a moment inside the distance his determined run looked decisive.
However, Prolific (5-1) and Richard Hughes would not yield and held on by a neck with Reve de Soleil a further head behind.
