Stradivarius to Duel Trueshan in Goodwood Cup

He is riding one of the the greatest stayers of the modern era on what could potentially be the horse's final ever run, but Andrea Atzeni cannot wait to get reacquainted with Stradivarius  in the July 26 Al Shaqab Goodwood Cup (G1).

It will be the first time Atzeni has partnered Stradivarius in competitive action since the duo won the same race in 2018, but the rider is showing no signs of nerves as he bids to take his record to a perfect four from four on the much-loved 8-year-old in the group 1 contest. 

"It's nice to be back on him tomorrow," Atzeni said Monday. "It would obviously be nice for him to do it again, but there's no pressure at all. These horses don't come along very often and for me to get a chance to get back on a horse like him, I'm going to try and enjoy it as much as I can, and hopefully, we can get the job done. Watching his runs, he's still always there or thereabouts and he definitely hasn't lost it."

Atzeni comes in for the ride after regular rider Frankie Dettori was criticized by connections for his Gold Cup (G1) ride on Stradivarius at Royal Ascot last month.

For the second successive year, Dettori and Stradivarius met trouble in running when bidding for a fourth Gold Cup success, with the rider's hold-up tactics coming under scrutiny from both joint-trainer John Gosden and owner-breeder Bjorn Nielsen.

Atzeni revealed that Nielsen was the man who approached him for the ride at Goodwood and it was a simple answer when the call came. 

"Bjorn approached me and asked if I could ride the horse and obviously, I said yes," Atzeni said. "He's a horse of a lifetime and what he's done is unbelievable. My record on him is very good and hopefully, we can keep it that way. What he's done has been great for the sport." 

Asked if he felt any anguish for his good friend Dettori, Atzeni said: "Listen, that's racing and I don't get into the political side of it. I just got a phone call and my job is to ride horses. I got asked to ride him and I took the ride. Frankie is a good friend of mine and I'm sure I'll be speaking to him tomorrow."

Atzeni acknowledged that all eyes will be on him and Stradivarius from the moment they walk into the paddock at Goodwood on Tuesday but the fact his partner has repeatedly met trouble in running in his recent races is not concerning the jockey.

"That's racing and it's just one of those things sometimes," he added. "You need the draw, the pace to be on, and to be able to get a position from where you can make a challenge whenever you want to, but a lot of the time that is not the case and it's not easy in those big races."

On his tactics for Tuesday, Atzeni said: "Hopefully we can get a nice smooth run and he gets every chance. Obviously, I looked through the race after declarations and waited for the draw to come out. I have an idea of what could happen but I'll have to speak to John and Bjorn and make a plan."

Trueshan Looks for Repeat Victory in Goodwood Cup 

A dry forecast following the hottest temperatures ever recorded in Britain is not what connections of Trueshan  were hoping for, but as things stand, last year's winner is set to take his chance at the Goodwood.

The going on the eve of the five-day meeting was described as good, good to firm in places but with clerk of the course Ed Arkell reassuring Trueshan's trainer Alan King that any 'good to firm' places are few and far between, King is hopeful of running his stable star.

"Speaking to Ed, he said you'd be pushed to find the good to firm so I'm pretty hopeful he will run," King said. "We'll get there and have a look and see what the jockeys say, but if it's what he's calling it, I think he'll run. Obviously, if we got there and it went to good to firm, that would be a different ball game, but I've always said I'd be very happy to run him on good ground."

Good to firm ground ruled Trueshan out of last month's Gold Cup, but instead, he put up a colossal weight-carrying performance to win the Jenningsbet Northumberland Plate Handicap Stakes at Newcastle off an official handicap mark of 120 and carrying 148 pounds, and King believes that performance has left him spot on for his Goodwood Cup defense.

"He'd been ready to run for some time and it allowed me to get that run into him and then leave him alone for ten days," King said. "He just chilled out and went in his paddock and things have gone very smoothly since. He worked beautifully through last week."

The going was officially soft when Trueshan landed an impressive win in last year's Al Shaqab Goodwood Cup and King explained why quick ground goes against the dual group 1 winner.

"Hollie Doyle and Tom Marquand have all ridden him on quickish ground and said don't run him on anything quicker than that. Whether he's going to be as good on good ground, I don't know, but I'm happy to try."