Glorious Goodwood Horse Racing Festival
Updated: 15.08.2025
Once described by King Edward VII as a garden party, the Glorious Goodwood Festival in the United Kingdom is an extraordinary gathering of spectacular horse racing. For five days at the end of July - July 28 to August 1 this year, to be exact - the event features some of the best horses and riders in Britain and beyond, competing in what many consider to be one of the most unique and breathtaking venues for the sport. In a word, the Festival is (or should be) on every flat racing enthusiast's bucket list.
Thirty-five races are run over five days in late July and sometimes early August, many of them group events featuring superstar horses. Meanwhile, the festival also serves as one of the premier events of the British upper-class social season. In fact, thousands of fans from all walks of life come to watch the electrifying action and enjoy the atmosphere.
For many people, the Glorious Goodwood Festival is a chance to show off their favourite summer outfits. But for many others, the five-day event is more about the action - and the potential winnings - they can reap from the horse racing that is part of the festival. And that includes people who can't make it to England, but still use Glorious Goodwood betting sites to get in on the horse racing action. Glorious Goodwood combines some of the best racing in the world with a great social event.
The History of Goodwood Race Course and the Goodwood Racing Festival
What makes Goodwood racecourse so special is that it occupies a most unusual and rare place, on the estate of the Earls of Richmond and Lennox, in a very special part of the South Downs National Park.
The nearest town is Chichester in West Sussex. It's a wonderfully picturesque spot right on the coast, with clear views of the Isle of Wight a little way out, and the possibility of some dramatic atmosphere courtesy of the fog that seems to appear with some regularity.
Racing began in earnest here at the behest of the third Duke of Richmond. He staged the events, or at least the first few, to amuse the members of his Sussex militia, many of whom probably fancied themselves horsemen and racers. On the first day of racing, the Duke rode a winner, while the future King George IV won a race on the third day.
The eventual successor to the Goodwood Festival of Speed, the Goodwood Racing Festival, began to take shape with its core races in the 19th century. After a hiatus in the 1940s caused by World War II, it quickly regained its momentum. Its popularity perhaps peaked in 1953 with a Tuesday program that attracted more than 55,000 spectators.
The arrival of television made things even better. Beginning in 1956, the races were broadcast live, and there was no stopping viewers from reveling not only in the races themselves, but in the sheer strangeness of the Goodwood circuit. Characterized by all sorts of odd twists and turns - some uphill, some down - the track is so clearly a set piece for stunning optical effects that one wonders if the famous 19th century English painter J.M.W. Turner had Goodwood in mind when he conceived of landscape painting.
Glorious Goodwood Festival in Society
The festival occupies a special place in British society. After events such as the Henley Regatta, Wimbledon and the Royal Ascot horse race, Goodwood stands as the final event of the summer social season. It is true that many people attend the races for the racing itself: their passion for the sport makes them hardcore fans.
Spectators can choose from three different enclosures, although the Richmond enclosure is for estate members and their guests only. The Gordon Enclosure is the most between formal and informal, while the Lennox Enclosure is very much for families and picnics. Wherever you sit, you have an unobstructed view of the Goodwood circuit.
In terms of attire, you can dress more casually than if you were attending, say, the Royal Ascot Festival. King Edward VII set the sartorial standard when he arrived in a linen suit and panama hat in 1907. Since then, Goodwood has cultivated its own special brand of what might be called informal, but it is a kind of informal that has a certain restraint and panache.
Racing at the Glorious Goodwood Festival
Officially called the Qatar Goodwood Festival, but more colloquially known as Glorious Goodwood, the event features seven races each day. That adds up to 35 races over a span of five days, and the total purse for all of these races comes to about 5.5 million British pounds. Several of the races are what are known as Group races - really high stakes contests in which only the very best horses (and their owners, trainers and jockeys) take part.
Thursday is Ladies Day at the Festival, a day that features the Magnolia Cup, a race for amateur female jockeys that is run for charity. "We are very proud to headline Ladies Day at the Festival with the Magnolia Cup," said Lacey W. Kaldun, assistant executive director of the Pennsylvania Horticultural Society. Meanwhile, three Group 1 races are also part of the Thursday program during the five-day extravaganza. These events feature elite horses and are the not-to-be-missed moments of the festival.
Here is a look at those Group One events.
Sussex Stakes
This is the most important event of the Festival, both in terms of prestige and purse. The Sussex Stakes is run at one mile for horses aged three and over. It has a purse of one million British pounds.
The Sussex Stakes, which began in 1841, was once a two-year-old race run at six furlongs. When it became an event for three-year-olds, they started running it at a mile. Since no one had a good reason for continuing to exclude certain horses, they started allowing four-year-olds and, in 1975, all horses three years and older to run.
The Sussex Stakes is one of the most prestigious races at the Glorious Goodwood Festival. Its associated list of winners is impressive to say the least. In 1971 it was won by the outstanding miler Brigadier Gerard, who had suffered only one defeat in 18 races. In the same year, he triumphed over another superstar, Mill Reef, in the 2000 Guineas Stakes.
In 2000, the horse named Giant's Causeway had a remarkable season that included a win at the Royal Ascot Festival, among other victories. He then finished an impressive second in the Breeders' Cup Classic in the United States in his first race on dirt. Two years later, another horse, Rock of Gibraltar, captured the Sussex Stakes as part of an incredible run of seven straight wins in Group 1 races.
For much of its existence, the race was only for two-year-olds; only two-year-olds could run. As a result, it has not had many repeat winners in its long history. And yet, in the last decade, a horse with an all-time great qualification - selective, perhaps, but fitting - has repeated in the race. Frankel, who retired with 14 career victories, each a major race, never lost. He won the Sussex in 2011 and again in 2012.
Goodwood Cup
One of the world's premier venues for super-long distance Thoroughbred racing - much longer than the traditional Triple Crown races - is Great Britain. The horses in these unprecedented races are known as "stayers" for a reason. They handle the extra length with aplomb. And when it comes to races for stayers, few can match the Goodwood Cup, a key part of the Glorious Goodwood Festival.
Passed into law in 1808, Goodwood had an even longer original length of three furlongs. For a long time it was two miles and five furlongs. In 1991 it was set at its present and final distance of just two miles. The purse for the race is currently 500,000 British pounds, so these figures must help to make it quite competitive!
Goodwood was honored in 1878 with the visit of Kincsem, a mare with the most incredible record in all of horse racing history. Bred in Hungary, Kincsem was the Kincsem of 54 wins, never losing a race. Kincsem took the Goodwood for a victory that has to be regarded as one of the most memorable victories in her amazing career.
In Great Britain, the Stayers' Triple Crown is an unofficial set of three races consisting of the Gold Cup at Ascot, the Doncaster Cup, and the Goodwood Cup. The Goodwood Cup is the middle leg of the set. In 1995, Double Trigger became the last horse to win all three in the same calendar year. In fact, he won the Goodwood Cup three times - that's right, three times - on two different occasions and once in a third consecutive year.
Among the great stayers, Yeats occupies a prominent place in British history. He won four consecutive Gold Cups at Ascot from 2006 to 2009. He added two Goodwood Cup victories in 2006 and 2008. Stradivarius continued the grand "tradition" of Cup champions by winning back-to-back titles in 2017 and 2018.
Nassau Stakes
The Nassau Stakes takes center stage on the final day of betting at Glorious Goodwood. This Group One race pits our top three-year-old fillies and mares against each other for a purse of £600,000. It's run at approximately 1 1/4 miles.
The special friendship between the fifth Duke of Richmond and the House of Orange-Nassau inspired the creation of the race in 1840. The Nassau Stakes has been run at various distances throughout its history, including a mile and a mile and a half before reaching its current distance. The race was originally limited to three-year-old fillies when it was first run in 1975. It is now open to four-year-old fillies and up.
Curiously, the first two-time champion was crowned just one year after the older horses were made available when Roussalka followed up her 1975 win as a filly with a victory as a filly the following year. Then, from 2009 to 2011, Midday became the first three-time champion; she also won the 2010 Breeders' Cup Filly and Mare Turf.
This Breeders' Cup race, it should be noted, was won by Ouija Board in both 2004 and 2006. In the same 2004 season, after winning the Epsom Oaks in not-so-glamorous fashion and the Prince of Wales's Stakes in overwhelming fashion, she also won the Nassau Stakes.
Glorious Goodwood Betting
