If champions are defined by their ability to overcome adversity, Henrythenavigator is a most worthy one. The bonny colt defied a pedestrian pace that played to his opponents' strengths, in the process earning acclaim as Europe's leading miler. Now his sights are trained on the broader horizon of the Breeders' Cup Classic.

That race, run this year on a synthetic surface at Santa Anita, will suit Henrythenavigator far better than yesterday's crawl in the BGC Sussex Stakes. Windsor Palace was his designated pacemaker but the Ballydoyle second string proved woefully inadequate, serving only to tee up the race for the spate of seven-furlong horses aligned against him.

“I was worried two furlongs out,” Aidan O'Brien, the trainer of Henrythenavigator, said. “It was a slow race, which made it more complicated. David [McCabe, aboard Windsor Palace] did his best but he was flat out all the way. You need a very high-class horse to lead Henrythenavigator.”

It takes an exceptionally high-class horse to outrun him. Raven's Pass will never have a better chance, yet he succumbed for the third time in as many encounters. The John Gosden-trained colt closed the gap to a head, although Johnny Murtagh maintained: “My horse won snug. I never felt I'd get caught.”

Despite the closeness of the call, O'Brien duly collected his sixteenth group one prize of the season. Henrythenavigator has posted four to date; should he add to that haul in the Breeders' Cup Classic, he will warrant consideration as the best O'Brien has trained.

Indeed, Henrythenavigator's career is unfolding along similar lines to Giant's Causeway. The scarcity of runners yesterday - only six went to post - is down to him laying waste to so many along the way. And Ladbrokes are optimistic that Henrythenavigator can avenge Giant's Causeway's narrow Classsic defeat eight years ago. They quote the Ballydoyle stalwart at 7-2 favourite ahead of Curlin, the defending champion, at 4-1.

“We are going to stretch him out,” John Magnier said of his homebred. “We were going to run him in the Derby until the ground went against him. We think he will stay ten furlongs but we don't have to decide about the Classic now.”

Murtagh, who excelled aboard Henrythenavigator, completed a treble yesterday to match Ryan Moore's opening-day dominance. He got a good tune from Baddam to win the Invesco Perpetual Goodwood Stakes and an equally generous response from Love Galore in the race commemorating Sir Peter O'Sullevan's long links with Goodwood. Fittingly, Love Galore is trained by a Goodwood specialist in Mark Johnston.

Johnston's sole group one triumph of the season was gained at the expense of Mick Channon, who trained Nahoodh until her transfer in May. With Nahoodh subsequently landing the Falmouth Stakes, Channon will take succour from the Veuve Clicquot Vintage Stakes victory of Orizaba yesterday. However, that one, too, may not be long in his stable.

Orizaba was purchased by Sheikh Hamdan bin Mohammed Al Maktoum, a son of Sheikh Mohammed, on the eve of his below-par run in the Coventry Stakes. The deal was not straightforward; extensive veterinary tests were required and that, Channon feels, is what undid Orizaba at Royal Ascot.

“He did not have an ideal preparation,” Channon said, “but you saw the real Orizaba today. If I have still got him, he will go straight to the Dewhurst Stakes but I am delighted for Godolphin. They have got themselves a nice horse.” After a day bereft of any runner at Goodwood, they could certainly do with one.