Newmarket’s false rail has been judged a success and is likely to be used again, despite the field for Saturday’s 2,000 Guineas splitting into two groups for most of the race. The wisdom of the new layout was doubted by some, including Ryan Moore, who ended up winning both Classics over the weekend, but track officials believe it helped to minimise trouble in running.
“The important thing is that we’ve delivered the correct winners on both occasions,” said Michael Prosser, Newmarket’s director of racing, referring to Sunday’s 1,000 Guineas as well as the 2,000. “I didn’t have anyone come up to me afterwards and say, ‘I should have won.’”
Prosser introduced a false rail on the stands’ side of the course, reducing the width of the track by three metres, with the intention of keeping the runners closer together than in previous Guineas, notably last year’s 2,000, when two distinct races seemed to be taking place on each rail. The field for Saturday’s race still split into two groups from an early stage but the gap between them was not nearly so great and eventually disappeared.
“If the false rail had not been there, I think those two groups would have been even further apart,” Prosser said. “You can argue strongly that Home Of The Brave, as a frontrunner, would have tacked over to the stands’ side rail and we’d have ended up with a situation not dissimilar to last year. But this time the two groups amalgamated from two furlongs out because they were not that far apart.”
The false rail ended soon after the three-furlong pole, allowing the stands-side runners to fan out, and Prosser believes that helped the eventual runner-up in the 2,000 to find a clear path he may otherwise have been denied. “Would Territories have got a run [using the traditional layout]? It’s highly likely he’d have been locked in.
“I’m minded to review it with the rest of our team and we’ll discuss it with the horsemen. It was a success, we’ll review it and we may try it again for the mid-May fixture to get a bit more evidence. The lesson learned is: don’t be afraid to try something. You can get entrenched in doing things a particular way.”
Newmarket achieved a 3% increase in its 2,000 Guineas attendance at 16,738 though the threat of wet weather is believed to have caused a small decline in Sunday’s crowd, numbering just over 14,000. Channel 4’s audience showed the opposite trend, Saturday’s 504,000 being a decline of 7% on the previous year, while Sunday’s 335,000 was an 18% increase.
Found, the filly who missed the 1,000 Guineas for which she had long been the favourite, was beaten in a Group Three at The Curragh on Monday, justifying Aidan O’Brien’s decision to swerve the Classic. Ryan Moore got her to the front inside the final furlong but she appeared to tire and was run down by the outsider Iveagh Gardens.
O’Brien described himself as “very happy” and will now aim Found at the Irish 1,000 Guineas on 24 May. The trainer that Giovanni Canaletto, a 14-1 shot for next month’s Derby, will miss his planned trial at Chester this week after a dirty scope on Monday morning.
At 10-1, John F Kennedy is O’Brien’s most fancied Derby contender. He will run in Sunday’s Derrinstown Stud Derby Trial, while the trainer said Order Of St George was his likely runner in Lingfield’s Derby Trial on Saturday. Sir Isaac Newton, no bigger than 12-1 for the Derby, has been declared for a Chester maiden on Wednesday while O’Brien expects to have other horses in Chester’s Derby trials on Thursday and Friday.
