Ed Arkell reviews Goodwood Racecourse's 2024 season

SussexWorld

Director of racing Ed Arkell reviews Goodwood Racecourse's 2024 season

Transcript

00:00I'm at Goodwood Racecourse today and I'm joined by Director of Racing Ed Arkall. Ed thank you for

00:07joining us. We're here to talk to look back and to look forward as well. Let's start by looking

00:13back 2024 season. It seems a distant memory in some ways now but it happened and it was a good

00:20season. Just going back to the start of the season and you were coming into it off the back of a very

00:26wet winter. Did that give you some big challenges at the start of the season? It did but I'd rather

00:32have had it as a wet winter you know and not being cold and dry which we had the year before which

00:37you know we really struggled to get the course going. We came into it well we had a good start

00:42to the season but obviously the highlight being being glorious and that's our Goodwood Festival

00:46and you know the fact that we had such fantastic weather for that makes the whole season the

00:52previous year when it was you know not so nice. You know there wasn't a great feeling for the

00:56rest of the season but this year you know just gone we've had a really really good season we

01:00have fabulous racing great weather and you know what more could you want really. And the early

01:05parts of the season although you'd had you'd had challenges at the beginning of it through

01:09through the conditions you had some good early season meeting as well a couple in a couple in

01:14May well four in May and into the into the three Friday nights in June. You seem to sort of you

01:20know the flow of the season sort of got going pretty quickly didn't it and you had some good

01:24racing. It did and those four May race days are really fun we've got some really good racing

01:29always interesting to see where those horses go on to for the rest of the season and nice to see

01:33them progress the same with the Sunday in June with those two nice listed races. Three Friday

01:39nights are a huge success and obviously just waiting to see which acts we're going to have

01:43for next season. Yes yeah from a racing point of view three Friday nights must give you sort of

01:49almost twice as many challenges as another race day because it's almost like two events in one

01:54you have to concentrate on the racing and the horses and make sure that side of it goes well

01:57but as soon as you're done the place gets transformed. Is that does it does it get easier

02:02year on year because you've now been doing it a few years? Yeah and I think it does and always

02:07when you step into something and that's how it how it works which is what I did it's always that

02:12much easier than when you start a new event because you've got all the problems and actually

02:17it's up and running so you know the race day is the race day it's always the same and then you

02:21just have a bit of a crossover at the end when you're getting the last horses away and the

02:24dinosaurs just about to be laid and then it sort of it runs on fairly seamlessly. And you've you've

02:30touched on Glorious Week already but just let's go into a bit more detail on that. It was a vintage

02:35week actually wasn't it? It had pretty much everything you'd want it to have. Fine weather

02:40is a big part of it and that is a big help but it's much more than that isn't it? You had a

02:46you know it's a great week from start to finish. What would be some of your sort of highlights and

02:50memories of it? Obviously the three group ones. Kicking Royal Speeds in the track record you know

02:56fairly significantly on the first day was absolutely fabulous. Notable speeches in Sussex and then Aidan

03:02again winning the Nasser on the Thursday. Jan Bruegel who then went on and won the St Ledger

03:08which was fabulous. Just a shame he didn't get the opportunity to run in Australia.

03:13Just some some really good racing. The King George was a great race you know sort of a rematch from

03:18Royal Ascot between Asfor and Big Evs which was just being turned. And obviously a local winner

03:24in the Stewards Cup for George Baker. You know it was just one of those weeks. Bit of everything

03:28wasn't it? Yeah it was and the stories kept coming and there was always something interesting and

03:32you know those horses that have won here have gone on to great things during the season which

03:36is fabulous. Which is always a good you know something you look for isn't it? If the horses

03:40that have done well here then go on to big things like that. It's kind of it's nice for the people

03:45that have seen them here isn't it? Yeah of course it's a running theme. Yeah and especially with

03:48those sort of two-year-old races and some of the maidens and novices when horses really announce

03:53you know their presence and their arrival here and then you know it's nice for people to go away

03:58and say oh I do remember I saw that horse when it first won at Goodwood. It's good it's the quality

04:04of the racing and that's very much what we're about you know we believe very passionately in

04:08the sport and developing that and allowing the best talent to come through. I think going on

04:14from there another success was the August Bank Holiday Festival you know it's on a it's a

04:19different level to Glorious but it's still you know it's got its place now in your calendar

04:23hasn't it and it's an important part of what you do. Yeah it has very much and you know nice to see

04:27that the prestige is now a win and you're in for the Breeders' Cup and yeah just it's good high

04:33quality racing and it's a great way for the for the Bank Holiday crowds to come and enjoy that

04:39and enjoy the entertainment and the family fun and yeah just just a nice feeling actually quite

04:43nice way to to come down from the Castle River Festival. And the Celebration Mile obviously it's

04:48still a big race and you can't do the biggest outside of Glorious so yeah absolutely that's

04:52good to keep that in there and then how was the end of the season it's always a bit sort of it's

04:57more low-key isn't it but it's it's a nice sort of wind down really isn't it a couple of meetings

05:01in September your season finale. Yeah and again just nice good quality racing always interesting

05:07you know some of those end of season three-year-old races your horse is going on or having a first or

05:13second run before being put away for the winter for next season some great performances you know

05:19if you look at the EVF final that was a great race some nice horses in there so yeah very good.

05:24And throughout the season as ever good support from from trainers you know both the both the

05:29sort of big-name trainers that everybody knows but also the the smaller yards and the local

05:33trainers as well you know the bigger names people like Aidan O'Brien and the Goldstans

05:38continue to support you and that's important to you isn't it. It's hugely important you know we want that

05:42support from those big trainers both domestically and internationally but we run a program that

05:47hopefully caters for for all levels of trainer and look at the number of runners something like John

05:52Bredger and Emma Cook have with us you know that that's really exciting and we want to be able to

05:57to welcome trainers and owners at all levels to come and run here because you know nobody intends

06:03to try and buy a bad horse sometimes you don't get so lucky it's not such a good horse but we still

06:08think that owners should have the opportunity to come and run as a big racehorse and do you as

06:13director of racing clerk of the course get much feedback you know on a race day and after a race

06:20day from trainers from owners and others on on things like the condition of the track and the

06:25sort of whole experience they've had here and if if you do you know what's the feedback been like

06:30this year? Yeah very much so and part of the job is to make sure that we're getting that feedback

06:36to what people are saying I think we've been very lucky um Grads have worked unbelievably hard to

06:41produce a great racing surface and that's been reflected um in the comments of the trainers

06:47um a certain amount of what they've done this season particularly and seems glorious I don't

06:53think we've put the irrigator anywhere near the track as being controlled by mother nature so

06:58you know there's only so much you can do and we just have to make sure the track's in the best

07:02possible condition to put back as well as it is and as is as level as it can be um you know we

07:07had some extraordinary racing over over the big meeting and Grand you know the times were

07:13exceptionally fast and actually you look at the going stick readings and our own analysis and

07:19whatever of the actual surface and it probably wasn't that fast we probably just had that perfect

07:25situation combination of being quite wet beforehand then dried very quickly so you had a nice

07:31firm surface um but plenty of cushion underneath and horses were just able to perform to that level

07:38on a perfect surface and you know you could see as soon as we put a little bit of water on it on the

07:44Wednesday night I think um you could see suddenly the times all dropped back to where we'd expect

07:48them from what the going description was so that probably tells you that it wasn't quite as as

07:53quick at the beginning of the week as people might have thought it was looking at the times

07:57and a final word on the 2024 season if there's one race you could sort of stand here and watch

08:02again from the whole season which one would it be um gosh which one put you on the spot there

08:07very much so um I think purely from the performance that he put up it would have to be Kit

08:14Brylson yeah in the Goodwood Cup yeah um it was absolutely fabulous um Goodwood Cup has just

08:21thrown up so many stories here hasn't it yeah he's just was so dominant and to beat the track

08:27record in the time he did and it was just seamless I mean it was never never ever in doubt

08:33and obviously there was that very good horse of David O'Mara's uh that won at the August Bank

08:39holiday meeting the grey whose name I can't remember um that was a fabulous performance

08:45um didn't quite repeat next time out something wasn't obviously wasn't quite right and then ran

08:50on and won very well a group three at Doncaster um towards the end of the season so

08:54again that was a horse to be interested in yeah

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