Quipco 2000 Guineas

The first leg of the British Triple Crown gets underway at Newmarket this Saturday, as the best three year old colts line up for the Quipco 2000 Guineas. Ante-post betting is available now at Hollywoodbets. The final field will be announced on Thursday. Place betting offered on first 3 for ante-post.

QUIPCO 2000 GUINEAS
Saturday 3rd May - 16:50 (RSA time)
CURRENT ANTE-POST BETTING

KINGMAN 5/4

AUSTRALIA 3/1

TOORMORE 71/10

KINGSTON HILL 10/1

WAR COMMAND 10/1

NOOZHOH CANARIAS 16/1

OUTSTRIP 16/1

CHARM SPIRIT 25/1

NIGHT OF THUNDER 25/1

BOOKRUNNER 33/1

ERTIJAAL 33/1

SHIFTING POWER 33/1

GIOVANNI BOLDINI 50/1

THE GREY GATSBY 50/1

OKLAHOMA CITY 66/1

MASTER THE WORLD 100/1


The favourie: KINGMAN

TUESDAY 29TH APRIL 2014
Kingman on target for 'proper' QIPCO 2000 Guineas

Kingman may be a red-hot favourite for Saturday's QIPCO 2000 Guineas, but his trainer John Gosden feel he will have won "a proper Guineas" if he triumphs in the first Classic of the year.

Promoted to the head of the ante-post markets following his startling display in the Greenham Stakes at Newbury, the Khalid Abdullah-owned colt is aiming to give Gosden his first win in the Classic.

However, the Clarehaven handler is well aware of the task he faces as Aidan O'Brien has left no one in any doubt of the regard in which he holds Australia, who is a product of Galileo and Ouija Board.

Throw into the mix Richard Hannon's unbeaten champion juvenile Toormore and Roger Varian's Group One winner Kingston Hill, not to mention some fascinating overseas contenders, and Gosden has every right to be wary.

Kingman will have James Doyle in the saddle and while he has yet to win a Classic, he will arrive at Newmarket on the crest of a wave having ridden a treble at Lingfield, his third such feat on successive days.

"I think it is a really good Guineas. Australia is being talked of as a horse who is head and shoulders above the rest at Ballydoyle. Every year in the northern hemisphere that (Ballydoyle) is the best collection of three-year-olds that can be seen and the fact he is outclassing them all has got to be significant," said Gosden, speaking at a preview lunch for the QIPCO Guineas Festival at Newmarket.

"I like the Craven winner (Toormore). I think he is one of those really tough horses; if you go by him you will know you have had a race.

"There's a lot of depth - there's Roger Varian's Racing Post Trophy winner. It's a proper Guineas."
Gosden has repeatedly stated all winter that because of a required operation on an ankle last year he would be unwilling to risk Kingman on quick ground and the lack of recent rain has been a worry.

"We would have preferred the rain, but we haven't had much rain (in Newmarket). You look at everywhere else and it's soft or heavy. We are lucky we are racing on decent ground," he said.

"As long as the ground is close to good, that's fine. I just don't want to run on firm.

"It doesn't get heavy here as it's the fastest draining course in Europe. We wouldn't want to see a Guineas on soft ground, that's for sure."

Also on hand at the conference was Godolphin trainer Charlie Appleby who believes his Breeders' Cup winner Outstrip holds each-way claims, and Sheikh Fahad Al Thani, who sponsors both Guineas.

The Sheikh has two live chances in the QIPCO 1000 Guineas but favours the Olly Stevens-trained Lightning Thunder over Charlie Hills' Kiyoshi. However, his jockey Jamie Spencer is still keen on Kiyoshi and will not make his mind up until declaration time.

I like Kingston Hill

Will tellytrack show this race day?

ManP Wrote:

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> Will tellytrack show this race day?


Doubt it, 2 local cards on Saturday.... but hope im wrong.

All theses posts about major races on the planet is fantastic but without Tellytrack really puts a damper on the hype

scotia Wrote:

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> All theses posts about major races on the planet
> is fantastic but without Tellytrack really puts a
> damper on the hype

Will make sure we do our best to find a live stream where we can.

Appreciate Dev, someone thinking of the punters (tu)

Kingman overs

War Command will give the favourite most to do, that's my play very sad we will miss this race on TELLYCRAP AGAIN :X:X

Posted this on my website a couple of weeks back - still stand by most of it now so will post it here.

I'll also post a couple of streams for the UK Racing if you're short on Saturday, I generally have a couple that are watchable enough.

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The big trials have come and gone, with John Gosden three year-old star Kingman shooting to favouritism and his win in the Greenham at Newbury was supremely impressive. He settled beautifully off a sedate pace early on, travelled strongly throughout and went clear when asked with the minimum of fuss. Opening quotes of 5/2 post-race for the 2000 Guineas were quickly snapped up and with more almost certain to come, he looks an exciting prospect for the season and one to steer clear of taking on too strongly. One angle would be that if the ground comes up fast, but with the Newmarket ground-staff overly keen with the watering can, that doesn’t look too likely.

Toormore is the other big trial winner when he picked up the Craven at Newmarket earlier in the week. He remains unbeaten and could be said by some to be underestimated in the betting. He has the profile of “just doing enough”, which avoids the accolades that the likes of Kingman receive and was reported to have been left with plenty to work with in the Craven, so the fact he won and should come on for the run, can only be said to be a positive. However, my main issue with Toormore is the fact I don’t think he’s quite good enough. To me, he’s avoided all of the big players in his four races and the likes of The Grey Gatsby, Outstrip and Sudirman, probably aren’t going to be good enough to win a 2000 Guineas. Toormore really reminds me of Toronado about how he gets things done and that just makes me think that his time in 2014 will be later in the season, away from the Classics.

Those that have taken different routes to the Guineas include Noozhoh Canarias who is unbeaten in Spain and narrowly went down in a French Group 2 at the end of last season. That was on bad ground and he’s going to be more at home on a faster surface, hence why connections have brought him here. He’s entitled to take his chance, and even though disregarding the fact he was beating “trees” in Spain (compared to the rivals he’ll take on at Newmarket), Noozhoh Canarias shapes more like a top-class sprinter, as opposed to a miler. I think he’ll give a bold showing but his future may lie at shorter or in France, where they go slower early on compared to the UK. Kingston Hill has been backed on Betfair from ridiculous prices in the past week and is another in the race that is unbeaten. Although you can say the same about Australia, he’ll be more effective at further and the vibes from the yard have always suggested they’d be using the Guineas as a springboard for the rest of the season.

Cutting to the chase, Australia has really been ignored in the past couple of weeks. He hasn’t been seen and will come into the race fresh, which is an obvious to why people won’t exactly be talking about him. Aidan O’Brien also doesn’t often endear himself to the public at large, quotes include.

Everyone probably knows we always thought he was the best horse we’ve ever had”

Australia is the second-best horse we’ve ever trained

The way Aidan O’Brien goes about himself in his interviews, as well including his comments about Camelot a couple of years ago, where he gushed about that horse in similar tones but was incorrect, mean people take them with a pinch of salt. It could well be the reason why people are so keen to “get after” Australia at the moment.

The other main reason could be that he’ll be so much better over further. To be fair to them, his pedigree screams potential Derby entrant, being a sibling to some fair middle-distance handicappers who excelled over that sort of trip. Australia is obviously much better than they were and I’d say that it means people analysing his pedigree so closely in this regard are slightly wide of the mark. He’s proved himself to be a much different horse to his siblings, being precocious as a juvenile and hardly lacking pace. Ouija Board wasn’t top-class as a juvenile either and the fact that Australia was really impressive, means he is such an exciting prospect for the season ahead.

The way he won his race against Free Eagle (who unfortunately won’t be seen until a lot later in the season) showed how exciting he is. He settled well and although he was niggled along a little earlier than you’d like, he showed a real burst of speed to come with a sustained run on the outside of his rivals to win going away. The run indicated he’d be more than happy at longer trips on his running style, but to me, showed that he’s more than capable of handling himself at a mile trip at the moment.

Why? Essentially, the 2000 Guineas will be run at a furious gallop. This could mean that Australia is left behind, leaves himself too much to do and is running on too late in the day, especially on a track that traditionally favours those who are up with the pace. Those after the race will be saying “nailed on for The Derby” or words to that effect. The notion that the mile trip on good ground will be too sharp for him and that’s why he won’t win is a simple thing to say, a glaringly mainstream and almost fence-sitting opinion and one that I think isn’t correct. He may get beaten on the day, and he will most probably improve at some stage for the step up in trip.

But here is where I differ from the majority, Australia has an extremely good chance of taking the 2000 Guineas this season. The race this season has only possibly one other horse at the moment who we’ll be still talking about in 10 years (Kingman) and horses from Ballydoyle who scream that they need further than the mile at 3, have history of winning this race. Remember how Camelot just got up to beat French Fifteen? It was a Group 1 winning performance, that emphasised the fact he needs further. As I previously mentioned, they’ll go a really nice pace at Newmarket and Australia doesn’t seem to be a slow boat, especially given he travelled well enough on his last start. It’ll be a totally different race to that of when behind Free Eagle too, as they’ll be lots of runners, lots of pace and less opportunity for him to get caught out when the pace increases (as what happened somewhat last time). If things really do go quickly up front, then he won’t be stopping towards the end of the race and that’s an ideal attribute for this sort of race. The 2000 Guineas is a race littered with horses who went on to be much better over further as time went along, and I don’t see why Australia can’t be one of those.

I think he’ll win.

Final field and updated betting. Can be found underneath Newmarket Race 4 - Saturday 3 May

QUIPCO 2000 GUINEAS

5 KINGMAN 14/10

1 AUSTRALIA 28/10

13 TOORMORE 15/2

14 WAR COMMAND 8/1

6 KINGSTON HILL 9/1

9 NOOZHOH CANARIAS 18/1

3 CHARM SPIRIT 25/1

10 OUTSTRIP 25/1

8 NIGHT OF THUNDER 28/1

2 BOOKRUNNER 33/1

4 ERTIJAAL 33/1

11 SHIFTING POWER 33/1

12 THE GREY GATSBY 50/1

7 MASTER THE WORLD 100/1