GLORIOUS GOODWOOD

Glorious Goodwood is five days of flat racing at the end of July on the top of the South Downs, five miles north of Chichester: the summer meeting on the Duke of Richmond’s estate, called today the Qatar Goodwood Festival. Three of its races are of the first rank, the Sussex Stakes, the Goodwood Cup and the Nassau Stakes, and more than a hundred thousand people come over the week.

Edward VII, who came almost every year, called it “a garden party with racing tacked on”, and came in a linen suit and a panama instead of a morning coat.

The Third Duke

In 1801 the officers of the Sussex Militia lost their invitation to race at Petworth, and the third Duke of Richmond lent them instead a ridge on top of the Downs called the Harroway. The private meeting went so well that in 1802 he held a public one over three days. In its best-remembered race, Rebel, owned by the Prince of Wales, beat the Duke’s own Cedar for a hundred guineas.

The Goodwood Cup was first run in 1808, and the Sussex Stakes, in its modern form, in 1878; Frankel won it twice. Goodwood was the first course in England to start races with a flag. By the nineteenth century the newspapers were calling the meeting Glorious Goodwood, and in 1953 a single day drew fifty-five thousand.

The course is a straight six furlongs, uphill at first and then mostly down, with a tight loop off it to the right. The Trundle, an Iron Age hill fort, looks down over the whole of it and serves as a grandstand for those who walk up.

The Five Days

The festival runs from Tuesday to Saturday, a great race each day. Tuesday is Goodwood Cup day, over two miles for the stayers, with a cricket match at Goodwood House. Wednesday is the Sussex Stakes, a mile for the best milers, which Goodwood calls the duel on the Downs and runs for a million pounds. Thursday is Ladies’ Day, with the Nassau Stakes for fillies and mares and the Magnolia Cup, a race ridden by women for charity. Friday is the King George Stakes, a sprint, and Saturday the Stewards’ Cup, the great sprint handicap.

There are three enclosures. The Gordon and the Lennox are open to anyone with a ticket. The Richmond, the smartest, is kept during the festival for members of the racecourse’s club and their guests.

In 2026, from 28 July to 1 August, Bow Echo won the Sussex Stakes by half a length as favourite, Scandinavia the Goodwood Cup, and Diamond Necklace the Nassau Stakes, unbeaten in six races.

What to Know

It runs from a Tuesday to a Saturday at the end of July: in 2027, from 27 to 31 July. Tickets for the public enclosures are cheaper when booked early.

Goodwood prefers “easy elegance” to strict rules: linen suits, and the panama. In the Richmond Enclosure gentlemen of sixteen and over must wear a jacket, a collared shirt with long sleeves and a tie, with full-length trousers.

The trains run from London to Chichester, and shuttle buses go from the station to the course. Aircraft can use Goodwood’s own aerodrome. The Goodwood Hotel, on the estate, has ninety-one rooms.

The mistake is to expect to buy one’s way into the Richmond for the week. It is for members and their guests alone during the festival, and members may not sell or pass on their badges.

The Court

Glorious Goodwood is not the Court’s own. Places in the Richmond Enclosure, which only a member of the racecourse can bring a guest to, are sought on a member’s behalf, and the Court arranges the whole of it: getting there, where to stay on the estate or in Chichester, and the table afterward. The Court is at Goodwood earlier in the month for the Festival of Speed.

How one becomes a member is set out under Admission.