Ratings Update: Minding best 1000 Guineas winner since Finsceal Beo

This year’s 2000 Guineas rather revolved around last year’s top juvenile Air Force Blue, who recorded three wins at the highest level last season, including the Dewhurst Stakes at Newmarket on his final start. However, fitted with a first-time tongue strap after seven months off, the 4/5 favourite proved bitterly disappointing, beaten well before the extra furlong came in to play and going with nothing like the same zest as he did last season. He was not the only fancied runner to be well below form, either, as he was joined in the last three places by Racing Post Trophy winner Marcel, who shaped as if amiss, and Craven winner Stormy Antarctic, who was perhaps feeling the effects of that effort at Newmarket in testing conditions just sixteen days prior.

Despite the main form horses in the race running well below their best, this is still a race to rate highly, and the winner Galileo Gold ran to 125, a Timeform rating only bettered in the Guineas by Dawn Approach, Frankel and Sea The Stars in the past decade. Galileo Gold is entered in the Derby, but the percentage call is that he will probably prove best up to a mile and a quarter (showed plenty of speed here) and targets such as the Prix du Jockey Club or the St James’s Palace Stakes seem more logical. It is worth noting that although Air Force Blue would have plenty to prove should the pair again, Galileo Gold would still have 3 lb to find on Air Force Blue’s best (he remains on 128, and loses his ‘p’).

Massaat at least boosted the form of Air Force Blue’s Dewhurst (beaten three and a quarter lengths that day) in finishing a length and a half second here, and he is now Timeform-rated 121p (from 114p). He is the type to continue progressing throughout the season based on his tall frame, and should be able to make the breakthrough at the highest level at some point this season, perhaps over a mile and a quarter, which he should get based on his run style and pedigree. Third home Ribchester only had to replicate his best two-year-old form to finish two lengths behind Massaat, and may well fall short at this sort of level again, though he should continue to give his running.

The final horse worth a mention from the 2000 Guineas is Air Vice Marshal, who had a truncated two-year-old campaign, which included a long layoff after the July Stakes. He got firmly back on track at Newmarket, however, and is now rated 113p. He is just the type to progress further at three, and with the flatter terrain of the Curragh likely to see him to better effect compared with the undulations of Newmarket, the Irish 2000 Guineas must come into serious consideration for him.

Though Coolmore and Aidan O’Brien suffered a big disappointment in the 2000 Guineas, the fillies’ equivalent could not have gone any better for them; saddling the first, second, and third home. The top two-year-old filly of 2015 Minding, who rounded off her season with a win in the Fillies’ Mile (beat Nathra, who had already advertised that form with a comfortable win in the Nell Gwyn at the Craven Meeting) ran to a rating of 122 (from 120p), a figure only bettered by Finsceal Beo in the 1000 Guineas since the turn of the century. Minding is now odds-on for the Oaks and around 5/2 with a run for the Derby, but whilst there is every confidence that she will be fully effective at a mile and a quarter, her stamina for a mile and a half is not guaranteed, given she had enough speed to win a maiden over six furlongs last season, and that her dam Lillie Langtry recorded her best efforts over a mile.

Ballydoyle did enough in second position to win a typical renewal of the 1000 Guineas and is now Timeform-rated 116p, better than the three and a half lengths she conceded to Minding at the line given she was caught further back than ideal and had to barge her way out to get a run. As long as Ballydoyle stays away from Minding, she can win more Group 1 races (a Group 1 winner in France at two) and will perhaps have the Irish Guineas as her next target. She, like the winner, is likely to stay a mile and a quarter without necessarily being guaranteed to get further than that.

Alice Springs completed the trio of Aidan O’Brien-trained runners, and she evidentially found plenty of improvement from her reappearance at Leopardstown last month and wasted no time getting back to form. She is a smart filly, Timeform-rated 111, but is likely to only be playing for the places at the very top level this season, as was the case last year.

There were of course plenty of other high-quality group races across Guineas weekend.

Profitable laid down a substantial marker for the King’s Stand when taking another leap forward to land a high quality renewal of the Palace House and is now Timeform-rated 119.

Jack Hobbs made a thoroughly disconcerting start to his four-year-old season in the Jockey Club Stakes, having been pulled up and dismounted after being beaten three furlongs out. With connections currently offering no excuse for the performance, he will remain almost impossible to price up when he next runs. Despite the obvious disappointment from the favourite, Exosphere posted a much improved performance to win, and is now Timeform-rated 127, with his four-length beating of a near-peak Simple Verse (121) giving plenty of substance to the form after Big Orange (123) had made it a decent test. The Hardwicke Stakes would be the natural step for Exosphere next, and with a few more pounds improvement to come based on the way he went about this, he looks a prime candidate for that race and is an exciting four-year-old prospect.

The Dahlia Stakes looked a deep renewal beforehand, though several of the key players shaped as though they perhaps have bigger targets in mind for later in the season, and therefore Usherette (now Timeform-rated 118), who was fit from two all-weather wins in France, could find a few of these beaten rivals more competitive in the likes of the Duke of Cambridge at Royal Ascot. The second Arabian Queen (117) was right back to her best here from the front, and may well be heading back to the Princess Elizabeth Stakes on Oaks day at Epsom, which she won last year.

The Pretty Polly has been the port of call for subsequent Oaks winners in 2013/14, and Swiss Range – John Gosden’s third successive winner in the race – looks a filly right out of the top drawer herself, winning by three lengths with something to spare on her second career start. She is Timeform-rated 113p (from 99P), clearly on a steep upward curve, and would not look out of place even if pitched in at the top level next time, which could be the Prix de Diane, according to connections.

There were of course plenty of competitive three-year-old handicaps too, and the likes of Folkswood (110p from 89p) and Taqdeer (108p from 101p) created favourable impressions and may both be destined for pattern races in time.