2000 Guineas

A son of Wootton Bassett, he made three starts last year for Joseph O’Brien, all at the Curragh, and signed off the campaign with a length-and-a-quarter success over Proud And Regal in the Group One National Stakes.

However, the Jassim Bin Al Attiyah-owned colt has not raced since September and while market leader for the mile Classic, he will be a notable absentee.

O’Brien said: “He has just had a little setback training. Hopefully it is nothing too serious and he will be back later in the summer.

“He has options at Ascot and further afield than that as well.

“These things happen, so it’s a long way from a problem. It is obviously disappointing for the owners. This race has been his target for the last while, but we will look forward to things later in the summer.

“Timing-wise Royal Ascot will be fine, but we will have to decide whether we want to run there or in other races. We’ll not be rushing into any decision.

“Everything else is good. We are looking forward to what is going to be a great weekend of racing at the Curragh. It is very competitive action and there’s much to look forward to.”

With Al Riffa missing the race, Qipco 2000 Guineas winner Chaldean heads the market.

The races that will be run on Saturday, July 25 and Sunday, July 26 respectively, are the first classics of the 2020 racing season and will showcase 3-year-old fillies for the 1000 Guineas and colts and geldings for the 2000 Guineas competing over 1600 metres.

The purse for each classic race stands at JMD $2.8 million with SVREL footing the entire bill.

 “Last year SVREL had fronted $2 million with sponsors providing $1.5 million,” said  SVREL General Manager Lorna Gooden. “However, due to the impact of COVID19, companies were reluctant to come on board as they tighten their belts to handle the financial fallout of the pandemic.”

MNM Racing Stable’s Blue Vinyl won the JA$3.75 million (US$24,500) event by 11 lengths for trainer Patrick Lynch, clocking a fast time of one minute 37 and 4/5ths of a second for the eight-furlong trip.

The 11-1 bet Brinks finished second and Emperorofthecats (4-1) was third a further length and three-quarters away.

Out of the starting gates, the 15-1 bet Yellowstone and Brinks went for the early lead with April’s Prince Consort Stakes winner Emperorofthecats stalking. Blue Vinyl was seventh within four lengths of the lead after the first two furlongs.

Drawn in the potentially traffic-troubled one-box, the 24-year-old Roman had quickly safeguarded his inside path and further secured a clear run by rousing the Kingston Stakes winner to vie for third approaching the half-mile.

Three furlongs out, Brinks threatened briefly under jockey Reyan Lewis when he quickened away from Yellowstone while Emperorofthecats and champion trainer Anthony Nunes’s 5-1 shot Morimoto began motoring toward the lead, leaving Blue Vinyl back in fifth.

Brinks held a clear two-length lead coming off the final bend and Emperorofthecats presented an outside challenge but the race was effectively over when Roman roused Blue Vinyl to challenge between horses. After changing his hold and switching from right hand to left-hand whipping, Roman got Blue Vinyl to zoom past the duelling pair at the eighth pole.

Surging to double-digit lengths in the victory margin in the space of a single furlong spoke volumes about Blue Vinyl’s late race acceleration.

“I can tell you I had a lot of horse,” a chuckling Roman said post-race, almost in disbelief over how extraordinarily the horse quickened in the last furlong to give owner Michael Gayle his first Classic win.

“It’s a good feeling. I have been owning horses for over 15 years and this is the first time (winning a Classic), it’s an overwhelming feeling,” a smiling Gayle said in the winners’ enclosure.

Blue Vinyl’s winning time is the joint second fastest 2000 Guineas winning time in the last dozen years, only Wow Wow two years ago going faster at 1:37 and 3/5ths.

The win was trainer Lynch’s first 2000 Guineas triumph and fourth Classic success for the former jockey, who dismissed concern that there were contenders he had beaten in last month’s Kingston Stakes, returning to face him on more favourable terms at the scales.

“I didn’t have any doubts because if you look at this horse, how he is built, he is built to carry weight,” said Lynch, who had Derby wins with The Bomber (2007) and Drone Strike (2018) and a Fillies Guineas victory with Disability Charm in 2018.

Blue Vinyl’s spectacular win Sunday afternoon left fans buzzing over a likely St Leger clash on July 2 with the unbeaten filly Atomica, who won Saturday’s 1000 Guineas by 20 lengths in a stakes record 1:37.00, four-fifths of a second faster than Blue Vinyl went in his Guineas triumph.

The Too Darn Hot colt won on his debut at Salisbury last June and followed up that run when finishing fourth of 10 in the Listed Pat Eddery Stakes at Ascot.

On the latter occasion he was beaten by a subsequent Group One scorer in Richard Hannon’s Rosallion and, after winning the Tattersalls Stakes at Newmarket, he then crossed paths with perhaps the highest-regarded horse in training in City Of Troy.

The meeting was in the Dewhurst Stakes, widely considered to be an early Classic trial, and although City Of Troy’s significant reputation was not dented, Alyanaabi still impressed when coming home as runner-up behind him.

Aidan O’Brien’s colt is the clear favourite for the Qipco-sponsored Guineas after an exemplary two-year-old campaign, with Alyanaabi headed for the same race after working well in a racecourse gallop ahead of the Craven meeting.

“He came out of that fine, he did a bit of work on Saturday as the ground was beautiful at home last weekend,” said Burrows.

“We’re getting a drop of rain again but nothing too measurable and I think he appreciated the nice ground on Saturday.

“He’s in good form and, touch wood, it’s all systems go now.”

Whilst the Shadwell owned and bred Alyanaabi will hold out for the Guineas, other contenders have contested a trial beforehand and added more context to his juvenile form.

One such horse is Hannon’s Haatem, fifth in the Dewhurst and then the clear winner of the Craven Stakes at Newmarket last week.

Reflecting on the outcome of the trials, Burrows said: “Richard Hannon’s horse won well at Newmarket, he was behind us in the Dewhurst but it’s a new year.

“I shouldn’t think Aidan has lost too much sleep, we’ve all got City Of Troy to beat if he turns up in the same form he was in as a two-year-old.

“We’ve all got to take him on, but you can’t run from one horse.”

An impressive winner of a heavy ground maiden at Nottingham last October, the Ralph Beckett-trained colt was tasked with taking on Godolphin’s highly-regarded and unbeaten track-and-trip specialist for his return in a conditions race won by some top operators over the years.

The son of Night Of Thunder lost little in defeat when headed late on by the speedy winner – who was cut across the boards for the 2000 Guineas in the aftermath – and having blown away the cobwebs and confirmed the promise of his excellent debut, connections can now look forward to moving up in distance and a possible run in a Classic trial next.

“We knew we were going to use Saturday as a stepping stone and we know that he is going to want 10 furlongs plus and probably with a bit of juice in the ground, so for Valvano to go a mile round Kempton and take on a horse who has every chance of taking his chance in the Guineas, it was always going to be a tough ask,” said Alex Elliott, adviser to owners Valmont.

“It will have done him good to get the freshness out of him and it was an improvement on his debut and will have taught him something. We look forward to stepping him up in trip now and we will probably look at a trial, I suppose.

“The winner looks a cut above in terms of going a mile and you would like to think if we could make the same improvement as we did from a maiden going into a conditions race when going up in trip in preferred conditions, we could have a really smart horse hopefully.”

With the feeling Valvano has a preference for cut in the ground, weather conditions could dictate where he steps up in trip and although he holds an entry for the Betfred Derby, it could be the French equivalent at Chantilly that becomes a longer-term objective.

Elliott continued: “Ralph thinks from his pedigree he is going to want a little bit of rain and I think he is going to be ground dependent.

“On the bottom side of his pedigree there is a lot of stamina, being out of a Duke Of Marmalade mare. But Night Of Thunder doesn’t really get them to stay that far. Ten furlongs could be his optimum for now but I think Ralph is pretty confident the horse could stay even further.

“He’s in the Dante, but wherever the rain is, whether that is York or Chester or something like that, if that went to plan, we could look at going to France for the French Derby.

“We’ll see and it’s a long way away and for now it is nice to see him back and make the progression. Hopefully he can take another step forward next time.”

Fellow Valmont-owned three-year-old Feigning Madness could also put his Classic hopes to the test when he makes his return in trial action at either Epsom or Lingfield.

The son of Ulysses somewhat surprised his team when going unbeaten in two starts as a two-year-old and as well as being a candidate for the Derby, the colt is also seen as a possible St Leger prospect for later in the campaign.

“He ran above expectation last year, he ran at Newbury first time and we thought he would be green, which he was, but we didn’t really expect him to do what he did,” continued Elliott.

“To then carry a penalty the way he did at Newmarket when the horse was on his head the whole way, you have to think the horse is going to stay super well.

“He’s going to come back in a trial and it will either be the Blue Riband Trial at Epsom or Lingfield. He has had two runs now and has learnt a lot. He is crying out for a step up in trip and we’re going to try to pick our easiest way to Epsom – if we can run well in a trial, then why not take a shot.

“He’s a well-balanced horse and his work has been good this year, which is pleasing everybody, and I think the further he goes, the better, so you could hopefully see him in something at Doncaster at the end of the season.”

Feigning Madness claimed the scalp of Ed Walker’s Harper’s Ferry on his second start and it was interesting to see another of the Valmont string, Moon Over Miami, also finish ahead of that rival when making a taking debut at Doncaster at the beginning of the Flat turf season.

As he is a gelding, Classic events are off the cards, but connections are keen to see the Kimpton Downs inmate continue his on-track education with a view to lining up at Royal Ascot in the summer.

“The time boys went crazy over Moon Over Miami but with him being a gelding, he can’t take in one of the trials so we will probably go for another novice with a penalty,” added Elliott.

“I think Ralph has his eye on something Greenham weekend – I think there is a 10 furlong novice there – and I guess we will be trying to get three runs into him before Royal Ascot.

“We’re just a little hamstrung with him being a gelding as to what we do next, but he’s exciting.”

The colt is by Wootton Bassett and out of a mare called Frida La Blonde, making him a full-brother to 2020 Prix de l’Abbaye winner Wooded.

Trained in Westmeath by Adrian Murray and owned by Amo Racing, the bay made a winning debut at the Curragh last March and then took aim at Royal Ascot.

In the Coventry Stakes, a six-furlong Group Two, he was third at 16-1 when beaten only a length with River Tiber and Army Ethos.

That run led him to the Railway Stakes at the Curragh, where he prevailed ahead of Aidan O’Brien’s Unquestionable before returning to the same track to land the Group One Phoenix Stakes by four lengths.

His final run as a juvenile was again at the Curragh, where he contested the National Stakes and was third behind Henry Longfellow in a run Murray considers to have been one too many.

Bucanero Fuerte has since been listed as the second-highest rated two-year-old of 2023, gaining a mark of 120 as City Of Troy topped the list on 125 and Henry Longfellow and Vandeek shared third place on 119.

Naturally there will be high hopes for them all and the Amo runner will look to live up to the expectations that come with his reputation in his three-year-old season.

The Guineas is the likely starting point for the horse, who will be entered in both the English and Irish renewals of the race, though the former is favoured by his trainer.

“He’s great, he’s been back cantering for two months now and I’m very happy with him,” said Murray.

“He’s got big and strong over the winter, I couldn’t be happier with him – he’s turned into a fine horse.”

Of Bucanero Fuerte’s place in the two-year-old rankings and his next steps, Murray added: “It’s hard to believe it but it’s brilliant really, we’re aiming to go to the Guineas with him.

“We probably wouldn’t go for a prep run and he’ll be entered in both, my preference would be the English I think.”

Murray and Amo Racing have another nice prospect in Elegant Man, an American-bred colt by Arrogate who won his debut at Dundalk in October.

He then stepped up to Listed level in the Wild Flower Stakes at Kempton in December, where he was second to a good yardstick in the Group One-winning Rebel’s Romance.

He began his four-year-old campaign at Dundalk last week, prevailing by three and a half lengths from Tyson Fury in an encouraging performance.

The colt has been put forward for the Dubai World Cup at Meydan in March and that race is the immediate target ahead of the start of the domestic season.

“It was a lovely run, he’s come out of the race well,” Murray said of the Dundalk performance.

“There’s a lot more improvement in him too, we’re very happy with him.

“He’s nominated now to go to Dubai for the Dubai World Cup, he might not get in but that’s the plan at the minute.

“He’s still quite green, he’s learning, there’s more to come from him once he gets a little bit more experience.

“We’ll target the turf over the summer but we haven’t any plans after Dubai, so we’ll go there if we get in.”

The three-year-old is by Invincible Spirit and runs in the familiar purple and blue silks of Jeff Smith, whose most recent top-class performer was the multiple Group One winner Alcohol Free.

Ghostwriter made his debut at Newmarket in a July course maiden last August, prevailing by three and a half lengths over seven furlongs.

He then headed to Ascot for a novice event over the same trip, again winning comfortably when making the running and coming home a length and a quarter ahead of the runner-up.

His third and final outing of the season was on the Rowley Mile at Newmarket, where he stepped up in grade to contest the Group Two Juddmonte Royal Lodge Stakes.

There he encountered some promising rivals, including the Ballydoyle contender Capulet – a Group Two runner-up ahead of the race having finished only half a length behind stablemate Diego Velazquez in the KPMG Champions Juvenile Stakes.

Cox’s runner was well able to step up to the mark, however, succeeding by a length and a quarter in a taking run under Richard Kingscote.

Naturally that performance has brought the Classics into focus for connections, particularly now the bay is proven over the Rowley Mile – home of the 2000 Guineas in May.

“He’s done really well, he had a super break and he’s been back cantering for three or four weeks,” Cox said.

“We’re thrilled with the way he’s developed over the winter, he’s looking even stronger.

“We were delighted with the campaign we enjoyed with him last year and we’re all looking forward to this season.

“I’m very much hoping to go to the Guineas, the first week in May is uppermost in our minds.

“Especially with him winning on the track at Newmarket, on the July course, of course, but crucially the Rowley Mile.

“We would be very excited about him with those Classic races in mind.”

Conditioned by Hall of Fame trainer Richard Azan and ridden by reigning champion jockey Dane Dawkins, Mojito again underlined his credentials as the best among his lot at the moment with this, a fifth-straight win on the trot, in his seven-race career. His other two runs were second-place finishes.

Having won the Prince Consort over seven furlongs (1,400m) by 5 1/2 lengths, in 1:26.2 and, The Kingston by 15 lengths in a flat 1:33.0, over seven and a half furlongs (1,500m) on his way to the Guineas, it was a matter of how far Mojito would romp the $3.75-million Classic event.

The answer was a resounding 12 ½ lengths in a time of 1:37.2, behind splits of 24.1, 46.3 and 1:10.3.

Running from post position number two in the nine-horse field, Mojito left the gates well but suffered early traffic problems and, as such, was relegated to the back of the pack.

However, room opened up on the inside rails which Dawkins gladly accepted and soon joined Awesome Anthony (Javaniel Patterson) on the headline at the six-furlong point.

When Dawkins gave the signal, Mojito made big move and took the lead heading toward the five and later slipped away by three lengths leaving the half mile.

The gap widened coming in the stretch and Mojito continued to power away from rivals with Dawkins barely moving a muscle.

Money Miser (Reyan Lewis) was second with Ability (Linton Steadman) and Rhythm Buzz (Anthony Thomas), completing the frame.

Given the manner of his victory, Mojito is now heavily favoured to secure Triple Crown honours with the 12-furlong Jamaica Derby and 10-furlong St Leger to come.

Azan, who along with Alexander Haber, bred and own Mojito, is already rating the grey colt among the top horses he has conditioned in an illustrious career.

“I said he is one of the best because I have trained some really good horses so now he ranks up there right with them,” Azan said in a post-race interview.

“To be honest, I was a little worried at first but the jockey knows the horse very well, I was actually surprised that he went so quickly to the lead but then he relaxed after that and you know the rest was history. It is just about maintaining him from here because we still have two-more races to go for the Triple Crown,” he added.

Meanwhile, leading rider Reyan Lewis topped his peers with three wins on the 10-race card. He won the opening event aboard Carl Anderson’s Tocatbetheglory, the fourth aboard the Phillip Feanny-conditioned Inspire Force and the seventh race with Life Is Life, trained by Jason DaCosta.

Champion trainer Anthony Nunes has declared his 2020 Champion two-year-old (2YO) colt Further and Beyond fitter for Saturday’s JA$3.75 million (US$25,195) 2000 Guineas than he was for last month’s Kingston Stakes.

“He has just progressively gotten fitter and fitter and we are happy with his fitness level,” Nunes told SportsMax this week. “I think he is as fit as we can make him.”

Meanwhile, Miniature Man’s form suggests his current rate of improvement is probably the most pronounced of all the 3YOs and could nullify Further and Beyond’s upgraded fitness.

“He’s improving at the right time. He is training well and I think he is coming to give us a good performance again,” trainer Jason DaCosta said of his charge.

Saturday’s one-mile Guineas is half-a-furlong longer than the 7-1/2-furlong Kingston Stakes just under a month ago and Miniature Man’s rousing finish coming from behind, suggests in theory, that he will relish the extended journey.

“He is the kind of horse that stays forever so I think the longer they go should be the better for him,” DaCosta said.

Both horses have already won over a mile, Further and Beyond flawless in his Supreme Ventures Jamaica 2YO Stakes triumph last December in a pretty-quick one minute 39 and 3/5ths of a second and Miniature Man had an April 17 win over the trip in 1:41 and 2/5ths.

Miniature Man is listed in the official race programme Track & Pools as the 7-5 morning line favourite ahead of Further and Beyond (5-2).

Trainers Nunes and DaCosta will saddle as many as 12 starters in the 16-horse 2000 Guineas field.

The rematch buzz is also amplified by commotion over the race-day judges’ ruling of a dead-heat in the May 8 Kingston event, with Miniature Man’s owner Elizabeth DaCosta – convinced her gelding narrowly won – challenging the dead-heat decision. DaCosta’s appeal has triggered a referral by the Jamaica Racing Commission (JRC) to its First Instance Tribunal to settle the disputed result.

Beaten 4-1/2 lengths on debut by Miniature Man in a Maiden 2YO race in October last year, Further and Beyond, owned by Rajendra Poonai and Vikram Oditt both from Guyana, Rawdon Persad from Trinidad and Tobago and the Barbadian Elias Haloute, quickly improved and now boasts a lifetime-record of five wins in seven starts. Miniature Man has three wins in eight starts.

Undefeated in two starts as a 3YO, Further and Beyond comes into the rematch more favourably at the scales as both horses now shoulder 126 pounds, compared to the Kingston when Nunes’s colt toted the 126-pound topweight and Miniature Man had 117 pounds.

The jockeys are also in the rematch story after the Kingston dead-heat. Four-time champion rider Dane Nelson, eyeing his first 2000 Guineas triumph, is aboard Further and Beyond again and Panama-born Dick Cardenas mounts Miniature Man targeting his third win in the Colts and Geldings Guineas, having scored previously with Mark my Word (2010) and Uncle Donny (2012).

Other leading contenders in the 2000 Guineas are Miniature Man’s stablemate Billy Whizz (4-1) and Nuclear Noon (9-2) from the Nunes barn.

Regal and Royal, a surprise third-place finisher in the Kingston at 99-1 odds, earns more betting respect this weekend, showing at 8-1 in the morning line odds.

Nunes goes into the weekend with a mammoth log of 23 Classic wins while DaCosta, recently back home -- from his base in the USA -- to run his late father Wayne DaCosta’s successful stable operations, has never won a Jamaican Classic.

For Saturday’s 1000 Guineas, the 7-5 favourite is She’s a Wonder from Ian Parsard’s barn. Undefeated as a 3YO, She’s a Wonder scored a pressured half-length win the May 1 Guineas prep Portmore Graded Stakes over Sensational Ending and Secret Identity, who are both back to challenge her again. DaCosta’s Sensational Ending is at 2-1 in the morning line odds and Secret Identity, trained by former jockey Tensang Chung is the 9-5 second favourite.

SportsMax 2 has live coverage of the Jamaica Guineas Classics on Saturday from 4:00 pm (5 E Caribbean).

Hannon and owner Sheikh Mohammed Obaid had been weighing up whether to take in a trial en route to the Newmarket Classic, for which the Blue Point colt is a best-riced 6-1 second-favourite behind City Of Troy.

However, they have decided the Prix Jean-Luc Lagardere winner will avoid a testing run in soft ground and go there fresh.

“We have made the call that due to the unbelievable amount of rain we have had over the past months, Rosallion will not have a prep run and will head straight to the 2000 Guineas in May,” said Hannon on his website, www.richardhannonracing.co.uk.

“It has been a tough decision for both myself and his owner Sheikh Mohammed Obaid Al Maktoum, but with the ground as testing as it currently is, a run now would be too hard for him to recover in just two weeks.

“Rosallion has been in great form at home and we have given him two away days now where he has looked very impressive. He is fit and well and we are confident that he goes to Newmarket ready to take his chance.”

The Camelot colt was twice a winner as a juvenile, taking a Newbury maiden and then the Listed Flying Scotsman at Doncaster.

He then stepped up to Group One level to contest the Kameko Futurity Trophy back at Doncaster, a mile event run on heavy ground in October.

There he finished fifth as Charlie’s Appleby’s Ancient Wisdom took first place, a run Teal has taken the positives from as Dancing Gemini gained experience ahead of his three-year-old campaign.

“Conditions were soft when we won the Listed race but it wasn’t as bad as when we ran him in the Group One,” he said.

“We perhaps committed him too soon and then there was the horse that got upset in the stalls, so there was a delay as they’d all been loaded.

“He probably used up a bit of nervous energy, but he didn’t run bad at all in those conditions.”

Teal is pleased with how the colt has developed over the winter and is taking aim at either the French or English Guineas as his opening run of the season.

“He’s taken his work very well, he looks like he’s come forward so we’re really happy,” he said.

“He’s in both Guineas, French and English, so that’s what we’re aiming at. We’ll see a bit closer to the time which one we’re going to go for.

“He’s by a Derby winner and out of an Australia mare, so he’s bred to get the trip. Fingers crossed he goes well in the Guineas so we can start to dream big.

“He was a bit of a frame last year but he was always growing, he was a bit bum high but he seems to have levelled off now.

“He’s done very well, we’re very happy with him. He’s not a massive horse but he is a nice stamp, a nice athletic animal.

“He’s a Camelot and he tends to stamp them as good-looking horses.”