The ITV Racing cameras focus across the country on Saturday. Newmarket’s 2000 Guineas card is the main attraction, but with racing on TV from Goodwood and Thirsk as well, Joe Napier looks at every track for his best bets for the terrestrial action.
1.45 Newmarket – Betfred Handicap
More Thunder gets in with just a 5lb penalty for his recent course and distance success, so is effectively 3lb well-in according to the handicapper. However, he needed a long time to get going that day and neither of the opposing second or third, both beaten less than two lengths, have any further penalty on their backs.
That pair, Aramram and Woodhay Wonder, are respected, but the reappearing TWO TRIBES gets the verdict for Richard Spencer. He may have only won one of 13 starts, but was the picture of consistency last term, with four of his seven runs seeing him beaten 1½ lengths or less. Even in races in which he did not, he was drawn wrong at Royal Ascot (still finished third of eight in his group), raced on unfavourable soft ground, and was fourth of 12 in his group in the Ayr Gold Cup.
With five seconds beyond his win and so many competitive races in which he was in the mix, either just in the frame or outside, he is one you can set your watch by. He was second in this last season off 2lb higher on his return, with his mark of 88 the lowest he has run off since September 2023, so the handicapper is giving him a real chance of earning a belated victory.
2.00 Goodwood – racingclub.com Conqueror Fillies’ Stakes (Listed)
It was a bold decision by the Gosdens to step former Royal Ascot heroine CRIMSON ADVOCATE up to 1m at Kempton recently given she had never run over further than 5f before. However, despite that sprinting background, she acquitted herself well to be only narrowly denied in the Listed Snowdrop Fillies’ Stakes.
Surprisingly, it was at the end of the race where the daughter of Nyquist was doing her best work, failing by just a nose to reel in Soprano. That winner is a Group quality filly, so she was unlucky to bump into her at this level, but she is not facing a rival of that quality today.
With her stamina now as assured for 1m as it could be, and Goodwood’s track being among the least testing in that regard, there is likely to be more confidence in the way she is ridden by Rab Havlin. She herself could develop into a Group race filly this season.
2.35 Thirsk – Ladbrokes Thirsk Hunt Cup
This might be the time of the season to catch HI ROYAL, whose form tailed off markedly as each of 2023 and 2024 went on. However, at the start of both of his last two seasons, he was performing to a high level.
His form in April and May for the last two years reads 42335, with three of those runs being in Group 1s. He was second in the 2023 2000 Guineas at 125/1, as well as third in the Irish version, so ran to an extremely high grade, despite the fact his form figures from June onwards in the last two years reads 990077.
From the summer onwards, he completely fades, but first time out for the season in the spring looks the time to back him. He is now down to a mark of 102 for his first ever handicap start, so if able to recapture his Group level best from previous seasons, he is treated to go very well.
3.35 Newmarket – Betfred 2000 Guineas (Group 1)
There are many off-course suggestions, and enough on-course ones, that RULING COURT could become a Godolphin flag-bearer this season, and he is taken to upset Field Of Gold in this year’s 2000 Guineas. One of the main pointers is that this Listed winner is the chosen mount of William Buick over no less than the Dewhurst winner in Shadow Of Light.
Having been bought as a yearling for the not inconsiderable sum of $150,000, he was subsequently bought by Godolphin for 2,300,000 Euros as a two-year-old. He had clearly been galloping the house down in his early pieces of work, not just because of that price tag, but also because he was then sent off at the scarcely conceivable price of 4/9 for his debut at Sandown, which he won by 5½ lengths.
He was beaten as the Evens favourite for the Acomb Stakes, but the fact he was that well-fancied for what proved to be potentially the strongest juvenile race of the season speaks volumes. It was won by Derby favourite The Lion In Winter, and Ruling Court was the only horse to finish in front of any the leading trio from throughout that race.
His six-length Listed win at Meydan was disdainful most recently and he might just be a superstar. The draw in stall 11 is a slight worry, but this year’s field is small enough to negate many of the effects of the draw.
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