Glorious Goodwood 2026: Stewards’ Cup and more on final day of meeting – live

Welcome to Sussex for the final day of Glorious Goodwood 2026, and it’s an afternoon when it’s all about the betting as a 28-strong field goes to post for the Stewards’ Cup at 3.35.

This is one of the most historic and coveted handicaps in the Flat racing calendar, first staged as a six-furlong sprint in 1840 – just a year after the first Grand National over jumps – and, like the famous Aintree steeplechase, very much conceived as a spectacle for betting purposes, with big fields and winners at odds that punters don’t forget in a hurry.

I can tell you, for instance, what I was doing on the last Tuesday in July 1987. I was at Goodwood – my first time at the track, in fact – when Madraco won the Stewards’ Cup at 50-1. I did not have a penny on him, but I can also still recall that he paid something around 250-1 on the Tote, and I’ve been hooked on the annual search for a Stewards’ Cup winner ever since.

My pick for this year’s race – Far Above Dream – won’t set off at anything like those odds, and he’s currently the favourite at 7-1, but there are runners with a squeak on their best form on offer at prices up to 50-1 or even bigger.

The Stewards’ Cup is the undoubted highlight on the card but the supporting races include the Glorious Stakes at 2.25, where the quirky-but-talented Al Aasy is going for a hat-trick – and the Group Two Lillie Langtry Stakes for fillies and mares at 3.00, where last year’s 1-2, Waardah and Danielle – are likely to fight out the finish again.

The card here at Goodwood is underway at 1.50 with a competitive stayers’ handicap, but the ITV cameras will be making a brief early stop at Newmarket’s July course for the Chalice Stakes at 1.33 and another quick flit to Thirsk for the Summer Cup Handicap at 2.08.

Picks for the ITV races are here, and we’ll be off and running for the televised card in just under an hour.

Key events

• 26m agoPreamble

Newmarket 1.33, Chalice Stakes, Listed, 1m 4f

A relatively minor event for female horses that is open to all ages from three-year-olds up, but the older horses have had a very thin time of it in recent years with just a single four-year-old winner – Divina Grace in 2024 – in the last seven runnings. That’s quite a stark statistic given the overall representation of the Classic generation, and Charlie Appleby’s Romantic Symphony is a warm favourite to extend the sequence. She brings a high-class pedigree to the table – she is a sister to a three-time Group One-winning filly in Wild Illusion and also to Yibir, the 2021 Breeders’ Cup Turf winner – and while she was below-par in the Lingfield Oaks Trial in May, her run into second in a Listed race at Longchamp last time was a major step forward. Ralph Beckett’s Revoir, who has a few pounds in hand of Romantic Symphony on the bare ratings, is the likeliest contender from the older ranks, but the Godolphin runner, with man-of-the-moment Billy Loughnane in the saddle, looks by far the likeliest winner.

Selection: Romantic Symphony.

Preamble

Welcome to Sussex for the final day of Glorious Goodwood 2026, and it’s an afternoon when it’s all about the betting as a 28-strong field goes to post for the Stewards’ Cup at 3.35.

This is one of the most historic and coveted handicaps in the Flat racing calendar, first staged as a six-furlong sprint in 1840 – just a year after the first Grand National over jumps – and, like the famous Aintree steeplechase, very much conceived as a spectacle for betting purposes, with big fields and winners at odds that punters don’t forget in a hurry.

I can tell you, for instance, what I was doing on the last Tuesday in July 1987. I was at Goodwood – my first time at the track, in fact – when Madraco won the Stewards’ Cup at 50-1. I did not have a penny on him, but I can also still recall that he paid something around 250-1 on the Tote, and I’ve been hooked on the annual search for a Stewards’ Cup winner ever since.

My pick for this year’s race – Far Above Dream – won’t set off at anything like those odds, and he’s currently the favourite at 7-1, but there are runners with a squeak on their best form on offer at prices up to 50-1 or even bigger.

The Stewards’ Cup is the undoubted highlight on the card but the supporting races include the Glorious Stakes at 2.25, where the quirky-but-talented Al Aasy is going for a hat-trick – and the Group Two Lillie Langtry Stakes for fillies and mares at 3.00, where last year’s 1-2, Waardah and Danielle – are likely to fight out the finish again.

The card here at Goodwood is underway at 1.50 with a competitive stayers’ handicap, but the ITV cameras will be making a brief early stop at Newmarket’s July course for the Chalice Stakes at 1.33 and another quick flit to Thirsk for the Summer Cup Handicap at 2.08.

Picks for the ITV races are here, and we’ll be off and running for the televised card in just under an hour.