The horse racing world gets solely focused at Sussex Downs this week on the Goodwood racecourse with the Glorious Goodwood. The annual festival runs for five days from July 27-31. One of the high points on the flat racing season for horse betting, the Glorious Goodwood will host 35 races. The next few posts to this blog will preview the biggest of those races to focus on with your sports betting. They include two major Group One races, the Sussex Stakes and the Nassau Stakes, and two of the year’s biggest races, the Stewards Cup and the Totesport Mile.

The Sussex Stakes races on Day Two of the Glorious Goodwood. The Group One Race is over one mile and was won last year by Rip Van Winkle, trained by Aidan O’Brien. Rip Van Winkle is running again but doesn’t lead the odds. That belongs to the highly impressive Canford Cliffs, who won the Irish 2000 Guineas and the St. James Palace Stakes at Royal Ascot. Trained by Richard Hannon, bookmakers have reported heavy betting on the three year old so act fast before his odds get any shorter. He can be had around even money, depending on where you go. Though the Sussex Stakes is littered with some of the best three-year-old colts of the flat season as well as a few Group One winners from previous seasons, Canford Cliffs is still the best horse in this field. If Rip Van Winkle wins, it will be the first time in the past three years that three year olds haven’t dominated. It should be an exciting duel between the two horses.

Sussex Stakes Outright Odds (provided by William Hill)

Canford Cliffs: 4/6

Rip Van Winkle: 5/2

Premio Loco: 7/1

Dream Eater: 14/1

Beethoven: 25/1

Mac Love: 40/1

Beacon Lodge: 50/1

Encompassing: 200/1