Saturday's G1 Qipco 2000 Guineas will take place without last year's champion juvenile US Navy Flag (War Front) as Aidan O'Brien opted to take him to France eight days later for the G1 Poule d'Essai des Poulains. Alongside the expected withdrawal of Without Parole (GB) (Frankel {GB}) and Hey Gaman (GB) (New Approach {Ire}), his absence means that 14 line up for the latest renewal of the Newmarket Classic expected to be staged on good ground now that the seemingly never-ending rain has relented and a warm spell has blessed Britain. The highest draw is closest to the stand's rail, where Churchill (Ire) (Galileo {Ire}) and Galileo Gold (GB) (Paco Boy {Ire}) delivered their knock-out blows in the last two editions. As ever, any slight bias will be indecipherable until racing gets underway, with the opening nine-furlong Spring Lodge H. set to provide some clues.
'TDN Rising Star' Masar (Ire) (New Approach {Ire}) will break towards the stand's side from 14 and it may be that the Godolphin challenger has to plough his own furrow with the widely-expected pacemakers Murillo (Scat Daddy) and Cardsharp (GB) (Lonhro {Aus}) away in eight and three, respectively. If the latter pair are ridden forward, that could create the arrow-head formation so often seen in this Classic and lessen the possibility of a split in the field witnessed in 2014 when Night of Thunder (Ire) (Dubawi {Ire}) won and which was so influential to the outcome in 2002 as Rock of Gibraltar (Ire) denied Hawk Wing.
Whether an outside stall is to Masar's detriment or not, Charlie Appleby is happy with how everything has gone since the Craven. “He has definitely come forward mentally and in terms of maturity,” he said. “His preparation has been very routine since then and we are very happy with him. It should be lovely ground at Newmarket on Saturday and he has the course experience now. He made all last time out, but ideally we would like to take a lead. He is a very versatile horse–he can make the running, but has also been dropped in behind horses. We will play it by ear from stall 14 and leave it up to William as to where he feels the pace might be.”
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