Five days on the Sussex Downs, 27 to 31 July 2027. Jacket and tie in the Richmond Enclosure, no formal code anywhere else, and hats required nowhere.
Goodwood’s summer meeting was established in 1802 and has been called Glorious Goodwood almost as long, run on downland above Chichester by the Dukes of Richmond for more than two centuries. The Goodwood Stakes was added in 1823. Lord George Bentinck reformed the starting procedure here in the nineteenth century, after a shambolic false start caused by an elderly starter who was deaf and had a speech impediment, and the reform spread to every course in the country.
The place has produced its own folklore because it has been running long enough to accumulate some. St Simon won the Goodwood Cup by twenty lengths in 1883 and could not be pulled up, carrying on over the top of Trundle hill. The first horsebox in the world was used to take Elis from Goodwood to Doncaster for the 1836 St Leger; he arrived fresh, won, and made his owner twelve thousand pounds.
The 2027 Festival runs across five days from Tuesday 27 to Saturday 31 July. Ladies’ Day carries the Magnolia Cup, a charity race ridden by amateurs. The Earl’s Lawn is the enclosure the estate keeps for its own members and their guests, and the racecourse publishes a dress code for each of them. Goodwood also runs the Spring Meeting, a family race day, three Friday nights and an August bank holiday fixture, but this is the week the course is judged on.