Glorious Goodwood (15.10): Simenon up for the Cup

Simenon shaped as if coming back to his best last time out, and looks to hold outstanding claims of landing the feature on day three of Glorious Goodwood, the Group 2 Goodwood Cup (15.10).

Trained in Ireland by the all-conquering Willie Mullins, the gelding is a top dual purpose performer who has run with tremendous credit in top grade staying events on the level.

They include a cracking next second to Estimate in the 2013 running of the Gold Cup at Royal Ascot and a fine fourth of 24 to Fiorente in the Melbourne Cup in the same year.

Simenon also ran well to finish fourth in the 2014 running of the Gold Cup, and finished a solid fourth of 12 to Trip To Paris in this year’s renewal when last seen in action.

The eight-year-old stayed on strongly to be beaten just two lengths after being held-up well off the pace, and was arguably given far too much to do by jockey James Doyle.

In the circumstances it was a tremendous effort from Simenon to get so close, and he now meets the winner on 6lb better terms.

Given how the race panned out that should be more than enough to see Simenon gain his revenge, especially as it was just his second start of the season following 320 days on the sidelines.

The son of Marju should now be spot on to do himself justice, and with in-form jockey Frankie Dettori taking over in the saddle looks the one they all have to beat.

Trip To Paris has gone from strength to strength this season and looks sure to make a bold bid to follow-up his success in the Gold Cup, but a penalty for that race is going to make things very hard for the Ed Dunlop trained gelding.