Adelaide Racing Goodwood Handicap

The Goodwoodc Handicap is clearly the feature sprint race of the Adelaide Racing Winter Carnival. It is the lead race of the Morphettville Saturday Racing meeting and will be the feature race of our Adelaide Racing Tips form sheet with expert analyst Value Victor.

The race for many years was run under handicap conditions. This lead to a dilution of the talent coming to the race and as such put its Group 1 Status in jeopardy. The SAJC made the intelligent decision in 2006 to change the conditions of the race from a Handicap to a set weights and penalties event. This allowed for the topline talent to contest the race and not be forced to carrying a very heavy weight. The decision on reflection has clearly been the right decision with the race commanding Group 1 status. Since the inception of the new racing conditions it has seen the race won by some real stars of the turf including Takeover target(2009) Black Caviar (2012) and Black Heart Bart (2016).

Unlike the the other Group 1 sprint run over the 1200m at Morphettville The Robert Sangster barrier draws are VITALLY important in the Goodwood Handicap. The race attracts a capacity field of 20. With only 4 winners in the last 35 years drawn barrier 13 or worse, this is a race where you can afford to spend no extra energy so being wide is a big minus. The other problem is luck in running in the straight. When strong momentum is needed its no surprise that barriers 7, 8 and 9 have supplied more than 30% of the winners in the last 35 years. From this draw they can get into a 1 wide position giving them the best chance. 

Goodwood a national sprint race

This is a true Group 1 sprint that gains plenty of national interest with horses from South Australia, Western Australia, Victoria Sydney and Brisbane all supplying runners in recent years. Lofty Strike is the $2.50 short price fav followed by Zapateo, Kallos and Front Page all under 10-1. It promises to be a great race to wind up the Adelaide Winter Racing Carnival 2023. Look to Melbourne horses who have a strong record in the race to perform well. The Goodwood is race 8 on the Morphettville Saturday Racing Tips card.