no, backed Massaat e/w at 16s AFB obviously not ran his race, maybe didnt train on, the winner is a decent horse in his own right but think it might be the worst Guineas field ive ever seen, makes last years look decent
Too early to write off the Guineas form just because the fancied horses were out the back. FACT is that the winning time was just 0.91 secs above standard on ground officially good-soft. The winning time of 1:35:91 was the 4th quickest of the last 19 years with only Dawn Approach (1:35:84), Sea The Stars (1:35:88) and Cockney Rebel (1:35:28) quicker. The winner made most of his own running on the far side and was always up with the pace. He was then able to kick on and prevailed clearly, despite showing a little greenness and hanging under pressure. Be very interesting to see where he goes next but St James Palace Stakes and Eclipse would be my choice.
Actually kinda sad the jumps season is over,like the flat but there just isn't the same excitement is there-too many meetings,too many trainers,too many photo finishes,too many toffs,horses retired after a few runs etc
who said anything about where the fancied horses finished, nothing was particularly fancied outside the fav, the ground was faster than the official description and there was a tailwind so bank on the time at your peril The 3rd and 4th are Group 2 at best, the 90 rated 5th was beaten 11L at Kempton last time, Zonderland 6th and First Selection 7th are Group 3 horses. The first and second are decent horses but wouldnt have a chance against a proper Group 1 miler imo. The fillies looks a much stronger event tomorrow.
The field does not look great at this point but too early to tell as the winner did it very nicely, whether Air force Blue is still a race horse or not will obviously be demonstrated later on, but you would have to think he retains ability as otherwise he would have drifted in the betting as word does usually get out of Ballydoyle. Had he worked as he ran someone would have known.
Take no bleeding notice of times. If we did that we'd say Cockney Rebel would beat Frankel- the most frightening horse of the last 30 years. Galileo Gold won well but is Ribchester in 3rd a good yardstick? Only time will tell though and I'd love to be proved wrong.
Of course the time isn't the be all and end all but it was respectable on the prevailing ground and the winner was in the box seat most of the trip and went on again, winning readily. I think he will stay further hence my view he should go to the Eclipse. Still very early in the season to be arguing they are a load of donkeys. Lets wait and see is all I'm saying
More than fair Oddy And actually, regardless of whether the gut feeling rages that it was below par, only time will tell and hence at this stage you are absolutely right.
What an extraordinary suggestion? Would you have dared say that if Air Force Blue had won it? I'm sorry, but I find this absolute nonsense. Times aren't everything, as already mentioned, but, my goodness, the race was run at a fair old rate of knots, surely? I think Galileo Gold might well prove to be pretty decent at up to a mile-and-a-quarter. At the moment he does not strike me as a Derby contender, the sire's pedigree puts me off for one thing, and I don't think the dam-side breeding quite makes up for it. One can only give an opinion at this stage, but "Worst Guineas winner of all time?" is just a bit much? The report of the race in the Racing Post seems to me to be fair, and does not seem to indicate that this renewal of the 2000 Guineas was in any way sub-standard. However, as mentioned above, only time will tell: http://www.racingpost.com/news/live.sd?event_id=16452024&category=0
Well done to Swanny and anybody else who had the Guineas winner. I did not think that the French form looked that good, but now I am wondering how good Fabre’s horse Ultra might be, although Cymric subsequently let the Lagardère form down. Sad to see that, as usual, everyone is crabbing a Classic winner the minute it crosses the line because it was unfancied by most. We need to wait and see what happens later in the season. When I saw Moore scrubbing at Air Force Blue long before the final furlong my instant thought was ‘another War Front that has not trained on’. We will see if they try him in the Irish 2000, drop him to sprinting or retire him. I am not sure which bookies advice you think I am following. If the horse that I think is going to win is odds-on, I do not have a bet. There is no point backing something else each-way because it is going to make a worse return for a place because the win stake is lost; e.g. 12/1 at 1/5th odds is 7/10 for a place. Clearly plenty shared my view about morning 8/1 Waady as he ended up 9/2 favourite; but a loser still returns nothing no matter what the price, so I lost even without touching the two hotpots that got turned over. The only winner I could have honestly fancied was Exosphere but I did not expect Jack Hobbs to not even feature in the finish.
It's how many subsequent winners come out of a race not the time that determine its validity ...........
