Kingman was visually impressive in the 2000 Guineas but I, probably in the minority, don't think that the performance is all it's made out to be. I am basing this on one thing really which can't be fraught with danger but I don't agree with Richard Hughes when he says Shifting Power loved being in front. I thought that when he was asked for his effort 2f out he hung fire for a bit which leads me to believe that front running is not his thing and would be better suited to following horses. Yes, for 6f Shifting Power was travelling within himself but that was while dictating a slow pace. This leaves Kingman beating Mustajeeb and bunch of what looks to be Listed horses at best. He didn't have to improve anything form Newmarket in my opinion. This would make Night Of Thunder very interesting at 3/1 for the St James's Palace stakes as he was the one who looked better than the margin suggests in the 2000 Guineas and would be my fancy in Royal Ascot if ground was good or on the fast side.
Marvellous was another impressive winner and the form looks decent with the Newmarket 1000 Guineas 2nd Ligthening Thunder mowed down inside the last furlong. Her style of racing has always screamed more than a mile and being a Gr 1 winner going into the Oaks with her profile you can see why the 8/1 & 10/1 didn't last long.
The Tattersalls Gold Cup is not an easy race to have a strong opinion on with Euphrasia, who has been running below form on her starts this season finishing in close proximity to Noble Mission and Magician. My reaction to it would be Magician didn't run to form and therefore makes this look a very weak Gr 1 from a form point of view. But enough of that here is some horses to catch the eye over the weekend:
The 12f Premier Handicap looked a hot race beforehand with plenty of unexposed types in it. The race was won by Thomas Edison, who had only 4 flat runs previous to this with another lightly raced horse in 2nd in Toe The Line. The aforementioned pair don't look done with yet but it is the 3rd, Mindy, who is of most interest. She moved to Willie McCreery's stable this season who has applied the hood and got her in foal to Born To Sea and one or all of these factors has contributed to Mindy leaving behind her form previous to 2014. Coming off a nice win in Wexford in what looked to be an ordinary handicap, she was strong in the betting here and it is easy to see why. Her supporters can consider themselves slightly unlucky as she looks to my eyes to have been the best horse in the race. Unlike Thomas Edison, who got a charmed run, Mindy just gave the winner a few lengths head start off the turn and her inexperienced jock probably sat when he should have been kicking. She made up good ground in the last furlong and the effectively 2lb rise to 76 (raced off 74 here as was 3lbs out of the handicap) looks lenient in respect of this run. Hopefully we will get a chance to back her in a similar event to this before she has to end her racing career to perform breeding duties!
Intense Style had 2 contrasting runs before he won the 6f 2yo maiden. On debut he ran with great promise when tenderly handled behind Coventry candidate The Great War, but then it all went wrong when, to quote his trainer, the Intense Focus colt 'lost the plot' in a hot conditions race at Naas. He got back on the straight and narrow here with a likeable performance here and while those wayward antics in Naas are not too far below the surface I hope with racing he will mature. The impression would be that Dick Whittington failed to run to form as a beaten odds on favourite on Sunday but if Intense Style had arrived here off the back of his debut he would have been strongly fancied and not the seemingly unconsidered 20/1 shot he appeared to be. Intense Style appeals as the type who will be over-priced due his unsexy profile. The 3rd Dawn Mirage deserves flagging up too as he had the disadvantage of having no racecourse experience.
Table Rock has to be mentioned considering the name of this blog. The maiden he won last Sunday was quite weak considering his main dangers were pulled out due to the ground leaving him with an easier task. He certainly looks like he will be difficult to win with in more competitive events considering the way he reacted to pressure from his jockey, leaning away from the whip and holding his head very awkwardly.
Obliterator is another horse to blot his copy at the weekend. The cheek pieces were applied by Ger Lyons but they had no effect as Obliterator raced in a lazy style and was not going forward for all of Jamie Spencer's urgings. This is the 2nd time that the Oratorio colt has raced in this fashion having never really travelled in the Fielden stakes at the Craven meeting along with a hint of it on his racecourse debut when Emmet McNamara was niggling along during the early stages of that race. The ground being used as an excuse does not wash with me considering Obliterator's laziness has become more and more of a factor with each race he runs. A step up in trip or more severe headgear may allow us to see some improvement but he does look one to oppose for the moment.
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