IF, as expected, Soviet Song (3.15) wins this afternoon's Sussex Stakes at Glorious Goodwood, she'll be paying superstar filly Attraction the compliment of all compliments.

Until the Falmouth Stakes at Newmarket 22 days ago, Attraction had comprehensively beaten a combined total of 81 rivals in an unbeaten run of eight races which included this year's English/Irish 1,000 Guineas double, plus victory in the Coronation Stakes at Royal Ascot.

But somewhere, sometime, the sequence had to end and the party pooper proved to be Soviet Song, who cut down Attraction with the ruthless efficiency of a hungry predator snaring its' prey on the prairie.

As the horses were pulling up shortly after passing the winning post, Soviet Song's jockey Johnny Murtagh turned to Kevin Darley aboard Attraction and said: "Don't worry you've been beaten by a machine."

Racehorses of course are not machines, however in the heat of the moment Murtagh was entitled to indulge in poetic licence, and if he can extract a similar tune from Soviet Song in today's £300,000 Group One contest, there's little doubt that she'll be back in the money.

In such a great race it would churlish not to mention a couple of the other main protagonists, namely 2,000 Guineas winner, Haafhid, and Coral Eclipse hero, Refuse To Bend, both of whom are worthy of the greatest respect on the evidence of recent top-class performances.

Proceedings get underway with the longest event of the festival, the two-mile-five-furlong Goodwood Stakes. Decent hurdlers often do well in this type of marathon affair, bringing very much into focus Alrida (2.05), who picked up a £23,000 race over the sticks at Market Rasen last time out.

Richard Fahey's dual purpose gelding also boasts some pretty good flat form in the past and off what is only a featherweight of just 7st12lb, must be considered a live contender for the marathon test.

In the £85,000 cantorodds.com Stakes Mark Johnston goes into battle triple-handed via Fort, Etmaam, and Always Waining.

Always Waining easily holds Fort on their running at Ascot last Saturday where the former whipped Fort in a Class C handicap by five lengths. Clearly it was a much-improved effort, although the real talking point was the time of the race since the winner covered the 12 furlongs over a second faster than Doyen, successful in the earlier Group 1 King George.

Under normal circumstances using that compelling evidence, Always Waining would be the tip, however, Etmaam (3.50), to my way of thinking the unluckiest loser of the season when denied daylight behind Admiral and Maraahel at Royal Ascot, gets the vote.

Maraahel franked the from by bolting up in the Group Three Gordon Stakes at yesterday's meeting, and as far as Admiral goes, the soft lead he enjoyed up front when beating Etmaam is unlikely to reoccur now the others are wise to his tactics.