Gstaad at the Curragh last year

15 have been declared for the first classic of the season.

Not the race we expected throughout the winter.

Gewan, the Dewhurst winner, was fatally injured in a racecourse gallop. Publish and Zavateri were both ruled out after suffering setbacks and Albert Einstein failed to show his credentials for this in a pair of trials. All were fancied during the darker months.

Bow Echo, thrice raced, Maiden winner, Listed winner (beating Publish), and G1 Middle Park winner now heads the market at 11/4, favouring a straight to Guineas route.

Charlie Appleby runs a pair.

Distant Storm, a Maiden winner, third to Gewan at G3 level at York, winner of a G3 at Newmarket, he finished his juvenile season running third to Gewan in the G1 Dewhurst. He is the choice of William Buick, trading at 4/1 in the market.

King’s Trail will be ridden by James Doyle. He comes the route taken by Notable Speech, the winner two years ago. Two winning runs on the All-Weather at Kempton have encouraged the Godolphin team to have a crack at this.

Gstaad will solely represent Aidan O’Brien.

He’ll have Ryan Moore in the plate. In his juvenile season, he raced six times, winning three. A Maiden winner at Navan, he took the G2 Coventry Stakes at Royal Ascot. He came up short in three subsequent G1 runs. A short neck denied him in the Prix Morny, a head in the National Stakes, and ¾L in the Dewhurst. He finished his year at Del Mar coming good in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf.

Oxagon will represent John and Thady Gosden and be ridden by Oisin Murphy. Mixed form as a two-year-old. He won a Maiden but came up short in two G1 runs. Fifth in the Dewhurst, he filled the same place in the Futurity Trophy Stakes at Doncaster. He did take the G3 Craven here a few weeks ago in good style from Roger Varian’s Avicenna, another Godolphin colt; however, the last Craven winner to go on to win here was Haafhd in 2004.

Karl Burke’s Alparslon is the mount of Clifford Lee. He won a good sales race at the Curragh last year, and on comeback this year won the Greenham, beating last year’s National Stakes winner Zavateri in the process. Willie Haggas’s Needle Match was back in fourth.

Of the others, Fozzy Stack’s Thesecretadversary put in a good shift to win the Guineas Trial at Leopardstown, beating last year’s G1 Phoenix winner Power Blue, owned by Amo Racing. The former will have Seamie Heffernan on his back, the latter will be ridden by David Egan.

Thesecretadversary winning at Leopardstown

Often referred to as “the last two-year-old race of the season the best form from that season comes from Gstaad. He’s the one to back.

Recommendation

Gstaad 7/2 win