Jordan Yates' Nassau Preview. (Qatar Goodwood Festival 2018)

The Nassau is the feature affair on Day Three of the Qatar Goodwood Festival a Group 1 contest for Fillies & Mares which is ridden over a distance of a mile and two furlongs. It was won last year by the very smart Winter for Aiden O’Brien and he’s one again got one of the market principals here in the form of Rhododendron who’s the mount of Ryan Moore. She put in a rare sub standard effort the last day at Royal Ascot but won the Lockinge on her penultimate start. She’s a horse who’s generally a consistent performer at Group 1 level and will likely give her running.

Urban Fox for William Haggas joins the Ballydoyle charge at the top of the market and she comes here arguably in the best form of the lot. She was last seen when winning the Pretty Polly Stakes at the Curragh when lowering the colours of a fancied Ballydoyle contender and if in the same form today she’s likely going to be very hard to beat. She can be found trading around the 11/4 mark and is the mount of Danny Tudhope.

Another horse who’s locked in this three way battle for favourtism here is Veracious for Sir Michael Stoute and the returning Frankie Dettori. She comes here off the back of a solid third place effort in Group 1 company at Ascot. Connections believe that she’d come on massively from that run and up in trip here we could just see said progression. She’s also around the 11/4 mark. The Godolphin representative here comes in the form of the consistent Wild Illusion for Charlie Appleby. She herself is a Group 1 winner having won at Chantilly as a two year old and has gone on to post solid efforts in top contests throughout this season so far. She’s almost certain to give her running here and can be found in the betting at around the 5/1 mark with William Buick on board.

The rest of the field is made up by 1,000 Guineas winner Billesdon Brook for Richard Hannon, she wasn’t quite as good when last seen at Ascot but nevertheless it was still a solid run back in fourth. She’s an obvious player on that Guineas form and is trading around 8/1 with Tom Marquand this time taking the ride. Wilamina makes up the field as the 33/1 outsider for Martyn Meade and the in form Oisin Murphy.

VERDICT: If we had eight runner and the option of three places here i’d certainly be close to going each way with Wild Illusion due to her level of consistency, however we only have the two places to go with so i’m going to side with VEROCITY for Sir Michael Stoute. She’s a lot less unexposed than some of these and she could well be anything, Frankie is on board and i’m hopeful of a bold showing.

VEROCITY – (11/4)