And so we reach the weekend and that means it’s time for another blog and do we have some high class racing to sift through this weekend.
Before we look at the horses in detail I ought to at least mention the surprise retirement from the saddle of Ruby Walsh. When A P McCoy says he is the best ever, I sit up and take notice (I am no armchair jockey), and although I personally preferred his time as stable jockey to Paul Nicholls to his later years with Willie Mullins, his race record doesn’t lie, and he will be sorely missed by owners trainers and punters alike.
On to the weekend and we need to start at Newmarket for the first two classics of the season, though I am not much of a fan of the Rowley Mile which is a bit too corporate and plastic for my liking (old age?). Bias aside, the track is invariably perfection thanks to the hard work of Michael Prosser and his team, and if you don’t mind paying an arm and a leg for a drink and waiting a race or more to get served, then it is the place to be both Saturday and Sunday. As many of you will know there are five classics each season and Newmarket hold the first two, both over a mile, one for colts and fillies (2000 Guineas) and one restricted to fillies only (1000 Guineas).
This is the bit you might have read to in the hope I have a confident selection and I apologise in advance for letting you down – sadly I don’t. It looks one of the most open 2000 Guineas for many a year with no stand-out superstar and stamina questions against the first two in the betting, both trained by Aidan O’Brien. You get the feeling that this may be anything but a vintage crop of three-year-olds (I may yet be proved wrong), leaving a wide-open renewal and a larger field than normal in the hunt for the £297,019 first prize plus the breeding rights that go with success of course.
I have to make a decision and tough as it has been, I am going for Al Hilaleeeach way at 20/1. He ticks a few boxes as an unbeaten son of Dubawi after successes at Newmarket and Deauville plus a winter in Dubai (I wish I was a horse), but more importantly they had to pay £30,000 to supplement him for this race at the final stage and rich as Godolphin are, surely they had good reason? He reportedly worked well at their private trainer centre at Al Quoz which brought about the change of heart and although that does not mean he will win this, surely it does mean that 20/1 is a silly price and well worth a small each-way interest.
On to the 1000 Guineas on Sunday next and in all honesty, I didn’t find this any easier though I did find a quicker solution – though whether that is a good or a bad thing, only time will tell. Favourite Qabala could go on to be a world beater but has an awful lot to find on the bare bones of her form and seems dramatically under-priced in the circumstances and I will be on Just Wonderful, again each-way and again to coward’s stakes. Trainer Aidan O’Brien has won two of the last three renewals with Minding and Winter and has four entered here, though I am hoping Ryan Moore has chosen the correct one of that quartet. My selection has plenty of experience with seven starts for three successes at up to Group Two level including a comfortable win here over a furlong shorter in the Rockfel Stakes, and if she gets the ratting fast ground that seems to see the daughter of Dansili to best effect, then she won’t be far away in a wide-open renewal.
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