Paco Boy shines at Sandown – Glorious Goodwood Horseracing Festival

Richard Hannon jnr firmly believes Paco Boy will be hard to beat this season after he started the campaign in effortless style by sweeping away the opposition in the Bet365 Mile at Sandown.

Last year's winner of the Group Two event progressed to score in the Queen Anne Stakes at Royal Ascot last summer but was roughed off after his mid-summer Sussex Stakes second in preparation for his five-year-old campaign.

The 11-10 favourite looked a cut above in the parade ring before the field headed to post and he cruised into contention on the outside under Richard Hughes.

After snatching the lead passing the furlong marker, Hughes was little more than an onlooker as his willing partner stretched over three lengths clear of international campaigner Pressing.

Hannon jnr, son and assistant to his father Richard, said: 'I just spoke to Dad on the phone and he agreed with me that the horse is definitely better this year.

'He will go to the Lockinge now and I wish that race had been today as he was so well. He's been gasping for a race for the last six to eight weeks and he kicked two windows out of his box as he's so fresh.

'I think he will struggle to find one to beat him after today.

'After the Lockinge there are races like the Queen Anne and the Jacques le Marios and connections are looking at all sorts of races in all sorts of places.'

The colours of Ballymacoll Stud were successful in the Bet365 Gordon Richards Stakes for the second year running as Glass Harmonium followed up stablemate Tartan Bearer's 2009 win under Ryan Moore.

Another to strike at Royal Ascot, the Michael Stoute-trained four-year-old made giant strides under the champion jockey - who was sporting a black eye after being hit by a piece of turf in the previous race - and the 11-1 chance displayed plenty of heart to hold the determined Redwood by a head.

Stoute said: 'He was a little bit behind schedule in early March so he will have needed the run and there may be more than normal progress from this.

'He's a horse we've always liked and I hope he can really go on and progress.

'He will stay a mile and a half but we won't go down that route at the moment and the Tattersalls Gold Cup is a race that springs to mind.'

Luca Cumani had jetted off to saddle Presvis in the Audemars Piguet QE II Cup in Hong Kong and missed his Mabait making it four wins on the bounce in the hands of Kieren Fallon in the Poker At bet365.com Handicap.

Cumani's son, Matt, said: 'This was a sighter to see how he had come on and he has obviously come on a lot.

'It looks like he will get further but a mile will be fine for him for now.'

Adam Kirby ensured the Flat riders were not beaten at their own game by lifting the Casino At bet365.com Flat v Jump Jockeys Handicap.

The annual clash between the stars of each code is always the subject of plenty of weighing room banter but Kirby had the right ammunition on his side in Halsion Chancer (8-1), a workmate of John Best's 2000 Guineas hope Inler.

Best's assistant Martin Smith said: 'It's a bit of a boost for Inler - the horse has worked with him two or three times.

Royal Ascot Hospitality

Glorious Goodwood Horseracing Hospitality

Corporate Hospitality Group

Dream Alliance searching for Hollywood ending in Grand National

There was no action on the track here at Chepstow yesterday but the roar from one of the grandstand boxes would have graced any race day. On a television in the newly christened Dream Alliance Suite the horse after whom the room is named had just taken the lead with three to jump in a re-run of the Welsh National and his 22 owners were enjoying the moment again.

It was a neat piece of timing by the racecourse to honour the horse, a local hero, in this way, four days before he is due to line up for the Grand National Festival. Some members of the Alliance Partnership came here from their homes in Cefn Fforest, 17 miles north of Cardiff, and will go straight on to Liverpool, where they plan to make a big week of it.

Vokes got the idea while running a social club, where she overheard one of her customers bemoaning the large sums of money he had lost from a venture into ownership many years before. Howard Davies, a tax advisor relaxing after a game of squash, was stunned to find himself being pumped for information that would help Vokes achieve her latest ambition.

"So I said, 'You need two things: a field and a mare.' She said, 'I've got a field, I need to get the mare.' So I said, 'Get a copy of the Turf Directory and then we go from there,' thinking she'd go away. The following Thursday the Turf Directory landed on the bar. 'Now what do we do?'"

Vokes seems quiet and reserved as she deals with the media attention that Dream Alliance has brought her but Davies immediately realised she was "fairly resolute". With regret he was persuaded to abandon the promise he had made his wife that he would never again get involved with racehorses.

The syndicate members a disparate band, including a painter and decorator, a car washer, a former Provident collector and several tax workers – thoroughly deserved their moment of glory when the chestnut won the Welsh National here in December, even though they came close to saddling him with the name Lost Youth. Some two years ago, when he sustained a tendon injury at Aintree, there had been unanimous agreement that every effort must be made to help him recover, regardless of cost.

They may be the best-behaved owners in racing, having abided by an agreement not to pester their trainer, Philip Hobbs, for the past two weeks with inquiries about Dream Alliance's wellbeing. Until the final entries are made on Thursday, Hobbs will call Davies only if he has to pass on bad news.

"Every time my mobile goes I'm worried but as long as 'Philip Hobbs' doesn't come up on the screen, I'm delighted," Davies says. "If the Dream Alliance that turned up here for the Welsh National turns up at Aintree, in the same frame of mind, he's probably got a top-five chance. I think he'll relish the fences.

"He seems to rise to the crowds. He loves attention but in a sort of laid-back way. Everybody's affected by him, when they see him, especially kids. They can walk underneath him, you can touch his head, you can do anything with him and he doesn't move, he's a gentleman.

"When you go to see him after a race, if he's run well, he knows. Here at the Welsh, the runners were coming out for the next race and he was still having his photo taken."

Davies has struck a deal with a firm of Hollywood producers, who may now make a film of the Dream Alliance story.All that is required from the National is a happy ending.

Glorious Goodwood Horseracing Hospitality

Corporate Hospitality Group

Soft ground lovers may be those to concentrate on in Glorious Goodwood Horseracing Festival

Whinstone Boy worth a punt as rain continues to fall ahead of Glorious Goodwood Horseracing on Tuesday

Soft ground now seems increasingly assured for Tuesday Glorious Goodwood Horseracing meeting and conditions at Goodwood Racecourse will be markedly different to those at the Cheltenham Festival.

"Thankfully, the forecast is for the weather to improve in the second half of next week, but there are more showers due between now and then and it clearly looks as if it's going to be on the soft side," said the clerk of the course, Andrew Tulloch. "The grass is two to three weeks behind where we would want it to be. We take a lot of pride in making the surface as good as it can be, but the snow badly interrupted the grass growth."

Testing conditions would surely lead to a major shake-up in the betting. The favourite, Big Fella Thanks, won in atrocious conditions at Doncaster last season, while Mon Mome should also be fine, but the likes of Backstage, Can't Buy Time and State of Play would surely be disadvantaged.

Whinstone Boy, a noted mudlark, needs 14 higher-weighted horses to come out if he is to get a run but as long as he is declared, backers will have their stakes refunded even if he fails to make the final line-up. The downside to backing him at 33‑1 with William Hill looks minimal if the rain continues to fall as predicted.

Smith's-sponsored showpiece. It brings heartbreak for Jamie Codd, the amateur jockey who will now lose his dream mount.

That decision would once have been the province of Tony McCoy, these days retained by J.P.McManus. The champion owner has his usual multiple entry, for a race neither he nor his celebrated jockey has won, and McCoy's lengthy cogitations have had significant effects on the ante-post market.

Desert Orchid, easily the best of the British victors, was another to prove that class will out when he scored under 12st, giving between 26lb and 28lb to 13 rivals in 1990. There have been less distinguished winners, though, even bizarre ones. If Brown Lad was the Irish National's equivalent of Red Rum, then possibly its Foinavon may be found in Alike, successful in 1929 when ridden by Frank Wise, who was missing three fingers and rode with a wooden leg.

Corporate Hospitality Group offers differents corporate hospitality Packages.

Click on Corporate Hospitality Group and know about the different corporate hospitality events of rugby, horse racing, golf and tennis and etc

Glorious Goodwood Horseracing Hospitality

Corporate Hospitality Group