Bated Breath's Coppull lands the Gr.2 Richmond Stakes at Goodwood

With a hefty storm brewing overhead Goodwood, Highfield Farm's 2YO colt Coppull (Bated Breath) showed his rivals a clean pair of heels in Thursday's Gr.2 Richmond Stakes.

Taken from the Thoroughbred Daily News, 31st July 2025, by Tom Frary:

Third in the Coventry last month, David Armstrong's homebred was 5-1 to provide Clive Cox with a third renewal of this six-furlong contest in seven years and was always happy in front of the group racing towards the stands under David Probert.

Finding the fence late on, the colt named, like most of the owner-breeder's horses, after a Lancashire village kept up the momentum to score by two lengths from Ballydoyle's Puerto Rico, with the Windsor Castle winner Havana Hurricane a neck away in third.

“He's got such a beautiful action on a nice surface I was concerned about the rain, but he is very quick and found an easy rhythm,” Cox said in a drenched winner's enclosure. “There is a lot of years' work going into these families and it's great to have a winner of a race like this for the Armstrongs.”

“He's very gifted and a proper six-furlong horse, so the Middle Park will be the end goal this year and he has a bit of size and scope there so I don't see why he won't do well next year as well. I'm not sure he'd go on soft, so if the race had been later we could have been in trouble with this rain.”