Qatar Goodwood Cup: The contenders

Southern France, right, runs Stradivarius close in the Yorkshire Cup this season. Picture: Alan Crowhurst/Getty Images

Newmarket trainer Charlie Appleby has outlined the challenge of Britain’s first Melbourne Cup-winner Cross Counter.

Meanwhile, jockey Silvestre De Sousa has surveyed the size of the task facing Derby runner-up Dee Ex Bee in the 2m contest.

But what of the other six contenders who will go to post for the Group 1 feature on the opening day of the five-day Glorious festival.

Oisin Murphy celebrates Dashing Willoughby's win in The Queen's Vase at Royal Ascot. Picture: Charlie Crowhurst/Getty Images

Three hail from the yard of Irish super-trainer Aidan O’Brien, who won the Qatar Goodwood Cup with the mighty Yeats in 2006 and 2008.

He is represented by Southern France, South Pacific and Harpo Max.

The former, who was runner-up to Stradivarius in the Yorkshire Cup in May, looks to be his primary challenger and will be ridden by West Sussex’s Ryan Moore.

However, South Pacific showed himself to still be on the up when landing the King George V Handicap over a mile-and-a-half at Royal Ascot last month.

Wayne Lordan has been booked to ride the three-year-old Galileo colt.

Another Royal Ascot winner, the Andrew Balding-trained Dashing Willoughby, will also go to post.

The three-year-old son of Nathaniel landed the Queen’s Vase before dropping back to a mile-and-a-half and finishing a close fourth in the Princess Of Wales’s Tattersalls Stakes at Newmarket on his latest start.

Kingsclere trainer Balding said: ‘He seems in great form.

‘It’s obviously another step up in class but he’s a Group 2 winner and we have limited options.

‘He stayed a-mile-and-six really well at Ascot, so two miles should suit him.’

The David Allan-trained Wells Farhh Go steps up in distance after landing the Listed Fred Archer Stakes at Newmarket.

And the field is completed by David Egan’s Raa Atoll, winner of a Group 2 prize in Germany earlier this season.

The Qatar Goodwood Cup takes centre stage on a seven-race card, which begins with the Unibet Handicap at 1.50pm.

The Group 2 Vintage Stakes (2.25pm) and Group 2 Lennox Stakes (3pm) also feature on an opening day which climaxes with the Unibet Fillies’ Handicap at 5.15pm.