The Flat season goes up a gear this weekend when the colts put their Classic credentials on display in the Group 3 Watership Down Stud Too Darn Hot Greenham Stakes at Newbury - our Ben Linfoot answers the key questions.
Can Gosden unearth a Guineas horse?
There’s been plenty of chat around why Nicky Henderson has never trained a Grand National winner but arguably a bigger mystery is how John Gosden has never won the QIPCO 2000 Guineas.
Since 1997 he’s only had nine runners in the season’s first Classic, a race right on his doorstep, and while history tells us it doesn’t slot in with his Modus Operandi, being so early in the campaign, you have to presume it’s an itch he wants to scratch before Thady takes over full time.
It’s not like he hasn’t run top-class milers in the race. Cape Cross, Raven’s Pass, Kingman and Roaring Lion were all beaten for Gosden in the Guineas and all four won Group 1 mile races after Newmarket, but the Classic came too soon for the quartet.
One of them came close, really close, when Kingman was beaten half a length by Night Of Thunder, a horse he had previously beaten in the Greenham and subsequently beat in the St James’s Palace in 2014. He was the one that got away.
Anyway, most of Gosden’s Guineas horses ran in a trial and most were beaten, but Kingman roared home by over four lengths in the Greenham and the Clarehaven yard have two five-day entries in the Newbury trial this Saturday.
Both of them are by Kingman. Chancellor, the favourite for the Greenham, who isn’t in the 2000 Guineas, and Field Of Gold, who is reportedly missing the Newbury race in favour of running in the Craven, who is.
Field Of Gold achieved more at two, winning the Group 3 Solario Stakes at Sandown and finishing fourth in the Group 1 Prix Jean-Luc Lagardere at Longchamp, Gosden seemingly preferring the mile at Newmarket for his Guineas prep next week.
Chancellor won a mere Doncaster novice on his third start and was denied his shot at Group 2 glory when he broke out of the stalls in the Champagne Stakes at the same track (when well backed) last September and was withdrawn.
He passed a stalls test at Kempton on Monday, a procedure that gave him the green light to run at Newbury. If he wins the Greenham and wins it impressively, Kingman style, Gosden will have to see if a supplementary fee for a Classic he’s yet to win is in the Chancellor’s spring budget.
What is Coventry winner Rashabar?
Rashabar, in the famous Sangster silks now carried by Manton Thoroughbreds, is a fascinating prospect for the season ahead and he’s disputing favouritism with Chancellor for Saturday’s Greenham.
Brian Meehan won this race for the same owners two years ago with Isaac Shelby and he went on to be beaten a whisker in the French 2000 Guineas (while Chaldean, who unseated Frankie Dettori coming out of the stalls at Newbury, won the English version).
A French assignment could be on the cards for Rashabar, too, who despite having the pace to win the Coventry Stakes over six furlongs at Royal Ascot as a juvenile could be aimed at the Prix du Jockey Club, via the 2000 Guineas at Newmarket, over the extended 10 furlongs at Chantilly in June.
“He’s had a very good winter,” Meehan said on Sky Sports Racing earlier in the week. “He’s been training really well, same sort of character and he’s in really good shape.
“He proved at the backend of the last season he was a good potential miler for this season when he was just unlucky in the Lagardere in Paris.
“I’m looking forward to stepping him up to a mile. Obviously we’ll get the trial out of the way first. He’s a big boy and he’ll need his trial and that’s what the Greenham is for. The race following that will be his big target.
“I think he can possibly get further (than a mile). He’s out of a Camelot mare and that gives me the impression he’ll get further, he’s in the French Derby. We’ll start at a mile and take it from there.
“He’s qualified for the French premiums which makes it even more attractive.”
Big targets. Whether he’ll be sharp enough for seven furlongs first time out at three is the big question with this weekend in mind.
Who’s the pick of the Godolphin trio?
Good question.
On the one hand you have Al Qudra with his Grade 1 Woodbine Summer Stakes second to New Century and his February Al Rayyan Mile win in Qatar. He’s well conditioned after nine starts and he wasn’t far behind Rashabar in the Coventry. He looks a miler on pedigree.
On the other hand you have Anno Domini with his lightly-raced profile and therefore potential. His taking Sandown win was boosted by Windlord and he was coming off a 113-day lay-off when beaten in the Futurity at Doncaster. He could get further than a mile.
On another hand the only gelding in the entries, Hallasan, also looks a miler. He won't have Classic pretensions but he might have Greenham ones and he beat Al Qudra at Meydan in January, after all.
It will be interesting to see who Appleby runs. If he runs any of them they will be his first ever representative in the Greenham, the Newmarket handler usually preferring next week's Craven as a launchpad, a race he has won three times from eight goes.
Is there a sprinter in the race?
There might be. There sometimes is and good ones, as well. Muhaarar won this race and he was a champion sprinter from the top drawer. Tasleet won it (albeit at Chelmsford) and he was a very good sprinter, ditto Perfect Power.
Last year David O’Meara won the Greenham with Esquire and he might’ve made a sprinter (being by Harry Angel out of an Oasis Dream mare) but for sadly dying at three.
O’Meara is back for more with Rogue Allegiance and if there’s a top-quality sprinter in the Greenham, this fellow could be it.
He was so good at Newcastle on debut in December, travelling really smoothly before quickening like a very good horse in a race another good sprinter, Tiber Flow, won for William Haggas on debut a few years ago.
A 190,000gns Breeze-Up purchase last spring, by Kodiac, a fine sire of sprinters, he’s a 20/1 chance with the only bookmaker quoting him for the Commonwealth Cup at Royal Ascot, but more layers could follow suit fairly soon if he shows up well this weekend.
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