Bow Echo (6/5) and Gstaad (10/3) bang heads for the third time this season in Wednesday's Sussex Stakes.
Arguably the feature race of the five-day Glorious Goodwood meeting, the prestigious Group 1 regularly provides the first opportunity for three-year-old milers to clash with their elders.
This renewal is no different, with 2,000 Guineas & St James' Palace winner Bow Echo and Irish 2,000 Guineas winner Gstaad set to take on a raft of established performers.
Unbeaten throughout his career so far, Bow Echo has got the better of Gstaad on his last two starts. George Boughey's stable star was a wide-margin winner at Newmarket on his first start of the season but, despite still losing, Gstaad managed to erode the deficit to be beaten by just a short head.
While Bow Echo has been seen just twice in 2026, Aidan O'Brien has sent Gstaad out three times, taking a trip to the Curragh to win the Irish Guineas inbetween starts Newmarket and Royal Ascot. The Starspangledbanner colt gives the impression that he is taking his racing well and may improve again here.
Column inches pre-race will be dominated by chat around the two star three-year-olds, however, Godolphin's Opera Ballo (10/3) is a worthy adversary.
Although he failed to hit the heights of his rivals at three, victories in the Jebel Hatta and the bet365 Mile preceded a brilliant run in the Queen Anne - his third place effort surely worth an upgrade given how the race was run.
His conqueror at the Royal meeting, Ten Bob Tony (14/1), reopposes following the biggest success of his career and 2025 Queen Anne winner Docklands (40/1) also lines up in search of his second top-level win.
Qirat (50/1) shocked the racing world when he managed capitalise on a sedate pace to take this contest at a massive 150/1 just last year and he is back again aiming to cause a major upset.
Sussex Stakes betting odds
(Odds will display when market is available)
Any odds displayed were correct at the time of writing and are subject to fluctuation.
