Stewards’ Cup Tips, Offers and Odds

Stewards’ Cup Preview: Tips, Betting Offers and Odds

Undoubtedly one of the most exciting contests of Glorious Goodwood is the Qatar Stewards Cup, which is held on the final day. Read on for the best odds, offers and betting tips surrounding this full throttle affair.

First run at Goodwood way, way back in 1840, this 6f Class 2 handicap for runners aged three and older now offers £250,000 in guaranteed prize money. Whilst the Nassau Stakes may be the highlight of the whole meeting for many, there is no doubting that this is a great spectacle.

Stewards’ Cup Tips and Betting Offers, 3:40 at Goodwood, 3 August 2019

The Stewards’ Cup is one of the feature races of Glorious Goodwood. Racing fans love it because it’s an incredibly competitive handicap sprint that always provides huge levels of entertainment. Punters love the betting opportunity it provides with one of the most active ante post markets of the year. Several well fancied horses from various parts of the early betting market have made the cut for the 28 runner field.

Punters to Get Back on Top

The Stewards’ Cup has provided the bookmakers with some welcome respite in the last couple of years. After a run of well fancied winners, Gifted Master and Lancelot Du Lac went in at 20/1 and 25/1 respectively but the top of the market looks ready to hit back on Saturday.

Flavius Titus, Justanotherbottle and Khaadem make up the top three in the betting and they each have a real chance of landing the £155,000 prize that goes to winning connections. It’s the former who offers the most appeal at odds of 11/1 with Ladbrokes though.

Justanotherbottle has bags of experience but not quite the strong incoming form you’d like from a Stewards’ Cup hopeful whereas Khaadem has the class without enough experience to suggest he can work his way through 27 competitors in this 6 furlong sprint.

Flavius Titus could just be in the sweet spot of experience and sprinting ability. He certainly looks a better horse than when he competed at Glorious Goodwood last season. Roger Varian has settled on 6 furlongs as the optimum distance for Flavius Titus who has run well in three handicaps over that trip so far this season.

Cosmic Law Could be the Best Younger Horse in the Race

History shows that it is tough but not impossible for three-year-olds to win the Stewards’ Cup. This is a very demanding race and those who have not been well tested before will find that it’s too much for them.

Richard Fahey and John Dance took the decision to get Cosmic Law a huge amount of experience early in his career. He raced more than most as a juvenile and has run well in three starts as a three-year-old.

Perhaps the most pertinent run in terms of his Stewards’ Cup chances is his fourth place in the Pavers Foundation Catherine Memorial Sprint Handicap. This represents a step up in quality but he showed that day he can cope with the chaos of a big field sprint handicap and has what it takes to grind out a place at Goodwood.

Betting Predictions

Flavius Titus has not been missed by the bookies for the Stewards’ Cup but you have to think that the 11/1 Ladbrokes are quoting about his chances is more than fair. He appears to be right at the top of his game right now and won’t be put off by the big field so back Flavius Titus on the nose.

This is a race in which having a multitude of options is wise. Therefore, you should consider complementing a win bet on Flavius Titus with an each way play on Cosmic Law at a tempting 16/1 with BetVictor.

Stewards’ Cup Previous Winners

2018 – Gifted Master – jockey Jason Watson, trainer Hugo Palmer
2017 – Lancelot Du Lac – jockey Frankie Dettori, trainer Dean Ivory
2016 – Dancing Star – jockey David Probert, trainer Andrew Balding
2015 – Magical Memory – jockey Frankie Dettori, trainer Charles Hills
2014 – Intrinsic – jockey Richard Hughes, trainer Robert Cowell
2013 – Rex Imperator – jockey Neil Callan, trainer William Haggas
2012 – Hawkeyethenoo – jockey Graham Lee, trainer Jim Goldie
2011 – Hoof It – jockey Kieren Fallon, trainer Mick Easterby
2010 – Evens and Odds – jockey Billy Cray, trainer David Nicholls
2009 – Genki – jockey Steve Drowne, trainer Roger Charlton
2008 – Conquest – jockey Dane O’Neill , trainer William Haggas
2007 – Zidane – jockey Jamie Spencer, trainer James Fanshawe
2006 – Borderlescott – jockey Royston Ffrench, trainer Robin Bastiman

Race History and Top Jockeys and Trainers

The Stewards’ Cup itself did exist before the year 1840, but did not have a specific race to which it belonged. Prior to the running of the inaugural 6f event in this year, the Stewards’ Cup was allocated to a race of the senior stewards’ choosing, and so in theory at least, could be awarded to the winner of a different race every year. Not an ideal state of affairs and one with which Lord George Bentinck was not satisfied. It was he who pioneered the awarding of the trophy to the winner of this six furlong contest on a a permanent basis.

The race has been run at this Sussex venue every year, barring the war years of 1918 and 1940 and has gone under its Stewards’ Cup title in every year except 2014 when sponsors 32Red renamed it the 32Red Cup.

Trainers and Jockeys

John Scott won the very first edition of this race with Epirus and scored three more times by the year 1860. His winning total was equalled when James Jewitt recorded a fourth success of his own in 1898 but as of 2015 is yet to be surpassed.

Four is also the leading total amongst the jockeys here, although this was set in far more recent times. Richard Hughes is the man who holds the honour, with his victory aboard Intrinsic in 2014 moving him one clear of Willie Carson.

With few runners possessing both the ability to cope in a big field and to handle what is something of a specialists’ track, it isn’t that surprising that the race has seen a number of multiple winners over the years. Marvel, Golden Rod, Lord Annandale, Sugar Palm and Sky Diver have all doubled up here but no horse has yet won the race three times.

In terms of the age of the winners, the edge seems to lie with the older performers. Using the period 1978-2015 as a sample we find that the record stands at seven wins for the three year olds, 17 for the four year olds, and 14 wins for those aged five and older.