A winning time of 3:23.53 was over 4s faster than last year’s race, with Scandinavia carrying a stone more than he had when beating Illinois in 2025. This year’s race was run at a more honest pace, with a finishing speed of 104.6% recorded by the winner compared to 111.8% the year before. It took Scandinavia 1:48.78 to reach the halfway point last year and he was 2.48s ahead of that this time around, but the extra pace injected by Trawlerman only served to bring out more improvement in Aidan O’Brien’s 4-year-old, who has now won 7 races in a row. The son of Justify was in a different league to the rest of the Goodwood Cup field and if there were any doubts about the Ascot form, I think it is now fair to make the point that there has been a changing of the guard at top of the staying ranks. A late speed figure of 36.16 mph in the final quarter of a mile was 3% quicker than any of his rivals and he took over a second out of Trawlerman on the clock over those closing furlongs. In fact, Scandinavia was faster than Trawlerman in each of the last 5 furlong splits, including both before and after the interference caused by Amiloc. He had the longer stride, averaging 24.98 ft for the contest with a peak of 27.22 ft (Trawlerman 24.20 ft average, 26.44ft peak) and is now a much more relaxed individual than he was when winning this race as 3-year-old in 2025. An average stride frequency that dropped to 2.04 strides per second mid-race was perfect for the undulations of Goodwood and allowed him to conserve energy before unleashing his powerful stride at the top of the hill. For what it’s worth, his minimum stride frequency figure was 2.17 per second in 2025, though that was almost certainly influenced by the slower pace. Whatever way we look at this data, Scandinavia comes out on top and for those looking for an angle for Trawlerman reversing this form, I think that has now become a “straw-clutching” exercise. Despite William Buick’s best efforts in the straight, over the final half a mile of the race, both Scandinavia and Rahiebb were faster on the clock than Trawlerman and it may be that age and time are catching up with him.

Trawlerman is a fantastic stayer. This season clearly hasn’t gone entirely to plan and a pair of 2nd placed finishes in an Ascot Gold Cup and now a Goodwood Cup are superb pieces of form under the circumstances. However, whilst the Gosden’s charge continues to run to a very high standard, Scandinavia has now raised the bar to a level where it seems Trawlerman is found wanting. As a 4-year-old, he is arguably still capable of further improvement and with or without the interference from Amiloc, Scandinavia would have confirmed his dominance in the Goodwood sunshine under Ryan Moore.