Dogs run deep at Goodwood. The first recorded major hunt gamboled along these green hilltops in 1739. Spaniels (it’s always been spaniels) peer out from the many oil paintings that line the halls. The kennels on the estate were designed by renowned architect James Wyatt, usually tasked with cathedrals, stately homes, and Oxford colleges. (In the end, he went for a combination of all three.) Even the famed after-race party at Glorious Goodwood is houndish at heart—they call it the Doghouse, and it’s liable to make you as sick as a dog the next day, when done right.
But dogs will soon run wild here, too. “The idea of 10,000 of them descending on us is a little daunting, yes,” says Charles Gordon-Lennox, the 11th Duke of Richmond and steward of the 12,000-acre Goodwood pile in West Sussex. We are speaking in the final days before Goodwoof, the estate’s inaugural canine carnival, which will slot, next weekend, into an already bustling summer roster—a raucous social season that includes the Goodwood Revival (fast cars and tweed); the Festival of Speed (fast cars and aviators); and the Qatar Goodwood Festival (fast horses and Hermès ties).
