HE Sheikh Joaan bin Hamad al-Thani (second left) with connections of Solow, which won the £1 million Qatar Sussex Stakes, at Qatar Goodwood Festival in Chichester, England. PICTURE: Juhaim

By Chris Hoover/Chichester, England

Freddy Head trained Solow continued his dominance with a hard fought victory over Qatar Racing’s Arod in the £1 million Qatar Sussex Stakes, the highlight of the five-day Qatar Goodwood Festival at the Goodwood Racecourse yesterday. The French champion maintained his unbeaten record this season but was given a run for the money by Arod, who only went down by half a length.
The French raider was only the fifth ever winner of Goodwood’s most valuable event trained in France and a victory on his first ride at the course for jockey Maxime Guyon. Despite the closeness of the winning margin, Solow was a worthy winner, forging past front-runner Arod in the final half-furlong and winning with what looked a little left in hand.
The five-year-old gelding has now won eight consecutive races, four of them Group 1s, including the Queen Anne Stakes at Royal Ascot last month. “He did not have the best of runs as he was always in the open and saw a bit of daylight. Solow is getting a bit lazy with age too and does exactly what he needs to. He’s just a hell of a horse,” said its trainer Head, who was having his first winner at Goodwood.
Solow, partnered by Maxime Guyon for the fifth time, was given a dream ride, tracking the leader Arod all the way from a smart break out of the stalls until deep into the home straight.
It was only in the last half furlong that the winner drew alongside, then passed, Arod, who dug deep in a commendable but ultimately futile bid to fend off the marauding French horse.
It was not a very fast run race and they kind of sprinted too, so there was no way that he could make any distances but he is still a great horse. He is kind and you can put him anywhere. Though he saw daylight all the way, he was always well balanced and never got into any trouble with the ups and downs.”
Maxime rides him very well. He is very confident and knows no stress. He is a great rider for his young age. Maxime said that he was always confident that he was going to win but I was not certain. The rest developed into a bit of a sprint. So the winning distance was never going to be huge and that is the reason we won by half a length.
“The plan is to go to the Ascot for the Queen Elizabeth in October. The softer the ground, the better. I don’t think we will have a race before that, then after that I think he will go for a well-deserved vacation,” added Head.
Arod, always a classy performer, produced the best effort of his career after a well-judged front-running ride by Andrea Atzeni,  leaving his connections convinced that he would have won on fast ground.
“Andrea is certain he’d have won on fast ground,” said Qatar Racing’s manager David Redvers. “The ground was just that bit dead for him. But it was a proper run.”
Arod, fourth in last year’s Derby, has blossomed since being dropped back in distance. His efforts this year have included a close third to Night Of Thunder (sixth today) in the Lockinge Stakes, followed by two confidence-boosting victories in a Group Three at Epsom and a Group Two at Ascot. “I’ve never lost faith in him, not from day one,” said trainer Peter Chapple-Hyam. “But faster the ground better for him. You saw the way he quickened at Ascot but he just can’t do it on this dead ground, it just blunts his speed.
“He doesn’t have to run from the front, but today we knew if he was behind Solow he wouldn’t get past, so we had to take the race to him and take our chance. “He has run a great race and done everything I asked him. He has got a lot more grown-up and is happier at home. He is really filling out and I think he will be still better as a five-year-old.”
An international campaign is planned for Arod, with the top mile races in France possibilities and a step up to 10 furlongs in the Cox Plate at Moonee Valley in Australia in October on the longer-term list.
“He is in the Prix Jacques le Marois but that is only two weeks away,” said Chapple-Hyam, “so he will probably wait for the Moulin but it has to be somewhere with fast ground. The Breeders’ Cup is at Keeneland this year, but although he does go round a turn I think that would almost be too tight a track.”