All eyes will be fixed firmly on Punchestown this week as a host of the country’s National Hunt stars make their final appearance before the winter, but next weekend also marks a crucial juncture in the flat season.

By Sunday evening the first two classics of the English season, the 2000 and 1000 Guineas will be over, and expectations are high that both prizes could be coming back across the Irish Sea. So far this season Aidan O’Brien’s team have been in red hot form and this must bode well for the prospects of his leading Guineas contenders who have dominated the ante post markets for their respective assignments since last autumn.

In the 2000 Guineas O’Brien’s Air Force Blue is the overwhelming favourite. He was the utterly dominant juvenile colt of his generation and his Dewhurst Stakes and Irish National Stakes wins set him well apart from his contemporaries.

ADVERTISEMENT

The one mile trip is something of an unknown, but in a race where credible rivals look thin on the ground, it will be a major disappointment if he fails to collect. Victory here would make O’Brien the most successful trainer in the history of the race. At present the Ballydoyle trainer and John Scott (seven wins between 1842 and 1862) jointly hold this accolade.

The 1000 Guineas hasn’t been quite so fruitful for O’Brien but in Minding he fields an outstanding candidate. In both the Moyglare Stakes and the Fillies Mile last autumn, this daughter of Galileo stood apart from the leading lights of her generation and she sets a daunting standard. Ballydoyle, a Group 1 winner in France in the autumn, could further bolster the trainer’s challenge along with experienced stablemate Alice Springs. Also worth a mention here is Jim Bolger’s Turret Rocks who may want further in time, yet is certainly good enough to make her presence felt. Interestingly, O’Brien’s two previous winners of this race, Virginia Waters and Homecoming Queen, boasted very different profiles to that of Minding and those fillies did have the benefit of a previous run at three. At the current prices, Alice Springs, who will surely improve on her comeback on bad ground at Leopardstown, looks capable of outrunning current odds of 25/1.

Sales dip

On the sales front, the latest edition of the Goffs UK Breeze-Up Sale at Doncaster last week was a decidedly testing one. An aggregate of just over £3.5m represented a drop of 30%on last year while the average fell from £38,125 to £32,686 and the clearance rate witnessed a marked decrease as it went from 90% to 72%.

Trade was at the very least quite mixed and demand was subdued at times. Indeed it was particularly tough for those that found themselves towards the lower end of the market and this should give definite cause for concern with foal crop numbers on the rise once again.

In all, half a dozen horses made at least £100,000 and the joint top lots, at £170,000, were two sons of the Tally-Ho Stud resident Kodiac. Tally-Ho themselves were leading vendors and supplied one of the joint top lots who will join John Gosden. The other £170,000 Kodiac was sold by Con Marnane’s Bansha House Stables and he will go into training with English handler Robert Cowell.

Irish point-to-pointers were again to the fore at a somewhat low-key edition of the Tattersalls Ireland Cheltenham April Sale, where centre stage went to Claimantakinforgan at £110,000. He was offered from Donnchadh Doyle’s Moonbeg Stables and was bought by the English outfit Highflyer Bloodstock. The four-year-old son of Great Pretender was the only six-figure transaction at a sale where 81 of the 87 lots offered changed hands for an aggregate of just over £2.7m.