GO go go Gossa! Let’s make the 2,000 Guineas a ‘Shoe-in’.
It remains one of the mysteries of the modern world how training great John Gosden has never won the colt’s Classic.
Kingman was Gosden’s one that got away. He was only beaten once in eight starts but that was when chasing home Night of Thunder in the 2014 Guineas.
For many he was robbed that day with the winner drifting across the track and making it impossible for the three-year-old to know he had a battle on his hands.
Now, though, Kingman’s son FIELD OF GOLD (3.35) is out to put the record straight in today’s Betfred-sponsored feature live on ITV.
And it’s not just Gosden who is out for a moment of history. His stable jockey Kieran Shoemark took over from Frankie Dettori last season and was left with a trio of fillies — Inspiral, Free Wind and Emily Upjohn — who were past their sell by date.
Shoemark was much maligned for no reason, but showed his class as a man and jockey when eventually grabbing his Group 1 thanks to Friendly Soul, who proved just that, in the Prix de l’Opera on Arc weekend.
This term, Shoemark and the Gosdens have been in cracking form, banging in the Nell Gwyn with Zanzoun, the Craven with Field of Gold and the Queen Anne trial at Ascot on Wednesday thanks to Sardinian Warrior.
After the Craven, I was convinced Field Of Gold would be a short price for the Guineas, but he was still 6-1. It was hard to understand, as the giant grey was useful as a juvenile and had just powered to a clear success.
Maybe people just don’t like the Craven anymore. After all, Haafhd was the last horse to do the Guineas double way back in 2004. Incidentally, you have to go back to 1991 and Mystiko the last grey to bang in a Guineas.
Today, Field of Gold a strong favourite and will surely take all the beating for Juddmonte. I hope he absolutely romps home.
Field of Gold is likely to be held up, but if there is a flaw in him that could be it, as it’s hard to see a confirmed front-runner in the line-up.
The obvious candidate is Tornado Alert, who is owned by Godolphin, a team which has better fancied runners in Ruling Court, chosen by William Buick, and champion two-year-old Shadow Of Light in a first-time tongue strap.
Shadow of Light banged in the Middle Mark (6f) and the Dewhurst (7f) last term but stamina for this mile is open to question.
Of the others, Expanded needs to improve for Ballydoyle to give Aidan O’Brien a 11th 2,000 Guineas while Jessie Harrington’s Green Impact is a relative unknown.
On Sunday it’s the turn of the fillies in the Betfred 1,000 Guineas with crack two-year-old’s DESERT FLOWER and Lake Victoria — between them unbeaten in nine races — going head-to-head for owners Godolphin and Coolmore.
I love Lake Victoria, and she was outrageously good in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies’ Turf at Del Mar. But something has to give and, for me, Desert Flower could yet be one of the best 1,000 Guineas winners for a long time.
There’s a bit of Oh So Sharp about Desert Flower, who powered clear in the 2024 Group 1 Fillies’ Mile. In every one of here starts she’s got better and better and her stamina might be the key asset in the closing stages. Let’s hope she’s ready to bloom after a week of sunshine.
That all said, today we’ll forget the sun in his jealous sky as we hope to lie in a Field Of Gold.
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