Goodwood 'perfect' but rain due

Clerk of the course Seamus Buckley declared himself “delighted” with track conditions ahead of the eagerly-anticipated start of Glorious Goodwood tomorrow.

After almost a month of drying weather, the Sussex Downs finally enjoyed some welcome rain over the weekend to leave the course perfectly placed to stage five days of high-octane Flat action.

The ground was described as good, good to firm in places on Monday afternoon - but Buckley was unable to rule out a further ease underfoot, with more rain anticipated before racing gets under way tomorrow afternoon.

Buckley, speaking at just before 3pm, said: “We have a big week ahead of us and, at the moment, I’m delighted with the state of the ground.

“We’ve had the rain that we needed over the past few days. We’d only had two millimetres for most of July, so it was badly needed.

“We had eight millimetres on Sunday night and at the moment the ground is predominantly good, with one or two good to firm areas.

“It’s forecast to be a dry and breezy afternoon, then there is a chance of some more rain heading into tomorrow.

“We’re forecast something between five and eight millimetres, so we’ll have to see how much arrives. We weren’t forecast anything last night and got eight millimetres, so it’s difficult to predict. The clouds are moving around very quickly.

“It’s genuine good ground at the moment, I’m pleased with it and I’d love to be racing today as it’s perfect at the moment.

“Whether it stays that way is obviously down to the weather.”