Friday 12 June 2015 08:19, UK
The best way to describe Saturday at Sandown – racing legend AP McCoy’s final meeting - was brilliantly miserable.
Interviewing AP and then watching his final ride was a real 'I was there' moment but also a very sad one. Equally predictable was how the champion jockey conducted himself with class and dignity throughout.
The day before at Sandown really ignited the new flat season. The horse to do that was Jack Hobbs. He put up a scintillating performance in the concluding handicap and was rapidly backed down to 10/1 with Sky Bet for the Derby.
The situation cried out for John McCririck to be bellowing from the betting rung as his odds were slashed across the board for Epsom, daring the layers to stand their price. I miss those days.
Jack Hobbs created a real, old fashioned buzz and his appearance in the Dante next month at York is now eagerly anticipated.
More immediately there's some top class racing to look forward to over Guineas weekend at Newmarket…
SATURDAY
Telescope took a while to come to hand last season and, with the way some of the Stoute horses are running at present, he might need a run or two to reach his peak. His presence will help the price of the Andre Fabre-trained, MANATEE, who isn't coming over to HQ for the exercise - he's here to win.
Fabre has won The Jockey Club Stakes with Shirocco and Getaway in the last 10 years and the little wizard must rate Manatee very highly. He was backward for most of last season, nailing a Group 2 in workmanlike fashion in October. Plus, who doesn't love a French raider at HQ, they've enjoyed tremendous success there down the years. Unproven on quick ground but winning siblings all won on good.
I rate GLENEAGLES and think he's a worthy favourite for the 2,000 Guineas, simply because the rest are mostly good but nothing special. Gleneagles qualifies as an exciting horse going forward and the only other one that fits the bill on that score is ELM PARK.
Yes, I know he's a middle-distance/Derby prospect, but this race lacks star quality and Sky Bet's double figure price is tempting on Saints fan Andrew Balding's horse. He is a course and distance winner on really fast ground, won the Group 1 Racing Post Trophy on soft, when he battered the opposition.
If O'Brien trained him, I reckon he'd nearly be favourite. Sorry to keep going on about the weather, but it's important, and if there's any soft in the going description, double your bet on Elm Park and throw a few quid each-way on Belardo, he simply must have cut in the ground to operate and he's a class act under softer conditions.
SUNDAY
If you thought the 2,000 Guineas was lacking a Frankel or a Zafonic, take a look at the fillies version!
Found would have been the pick had it not been for her stop-start preparation for the race and I can't put her up knowing she hasn't enjoyed the best run-up to the race.
Aidan O'Brien wouldn't run her if he didn't think she could go close but you will get found out going into a race like this if there is any weakness in your game. Reliability is going to count for a lot in this race and I like the chances of Saints legend, Mick Channon, who trains the ultra-tough and consistent MALABAR.
I'd be very disappointed if she finished out of the three in a race that lacks depth. She has bits and pieces of form with horses priced up a lot shorter in the betting, including the favourite, but she was a 'nearly' filly last season and she can make her own luck this year now she's had the chance to mature and fill into her frame through the winter months.
She ran excellent races to finish fourth in both the Moyglare and Prix Marcel Boussac to end her promising juvenile campaign on a positive note and she has to be in the mix on Sunday.
The two-day Guineas' meeting closes with a competitive-looking 1m 2f handicap. You could pick out a number of horses on the upgrade in this race, but one that caught my eye finishing third on his reappearance at Leicester recently was the Stoute-trained, MUSTARD (lost a shoe and hung out wide for most of the race).
His head carriage isn't the best, but it's a family trait that won't stop him winning and he's sure to strip fitter this time. He will need to improve to win what is without doubt a race that will throw up lots of future winners, but this is probably the right time to catch him and his trainer isn't one for running horses on a big day, when they have no right to be in the line-up.
A rating of 84 is workable and although there were questions over his attitude after Leicester, he didn't look a shirker when he lost his maiden status at Haydock (1m, good) last autumn.
