RULING COURT ran them ragged at Newmarket as Godolphin’s 2000 Guineas stranglehold continued.
The hugely exciting colt won the season’s first Classic with a stunning burst of acceleration as Charlie Appleby and the boys in blue bagged the race for the third time in four years.
GettyRuling Court (white cap) beats Field Of Gold (grey) in the 2000 Guineas[/caption]
PAWilliam Buick won the race for a second year in a row after Notable Speech in 2024[/caption]
But John Gosden’s 35-year wait for a first Guineas win goes on, as his 15-8 favourite Field Of Gold couldn’t overhaul the winner in a never-nearer second.
In truth, it’s a race jockey Kieran Shoemark might not want to watch back as he appeared to take a pull just over two furlongs out and allowed Ruling Court to get first run on him.
And it was an advantage the winner never looked like giving up once he’d quickened into a narrow lead under William Buick.
The former champion jockey had deserted stablemate Shadow Of Light to ride Ruling Court, and he might have been starting to panic when that rival moved up as the main challenger.
The 9-2 shot’s stamina soon came into play, though, and he ran on powerfully to keep the fast-finishing Field Of Gold at bay by half a length.
Appleby said: “We came in here with a lot of confidence that we had the right horses for the race, and they’ve both run brilliantly.
“It was a hard choice for William but he saw it right in respect of the fact he thought this horse was going to see the mile out strongly and that’s what he did. He outstayed them.
“Everyone had their chance in the dip to come and have a crack. William got a nice clear run and he never really looked like being caught when he took the lead.
“Shadow Of Light ran a great race in third, at one stage I thought we had a good match race going on here but John’s horse, as we expected, joined the party late but couldn’t get to us.
“It took us a while, but we’ve got the hang of finding Guineas horses now.”
This horse is unlikely to stick to a mile, though, with a trip to Epsom in early June surely on the cards.
Derby-sponsors Betfred slashed him into 7-2 for the great race and Appleby grinned: “We’ll let the dust settle. We always had him down as a Derby horse, but we’ll go away and formulate a plan.”
It wasn’t a straightforward choice for Buick, given Shadow Of Light came into the Guineas as the reigning champion two-year-old.
But Ruling Court’s red-hot work on the Godolphin gallops in the last few weeks made his mind up for him.
Buick said: “I feel amazing, this is very special. These races are what it’s all about and the horses are amazing to deal with.
“He put up a great performance in Dubai and gave me something to think about for the Guineas when we had a Dewhurst winner in the stable as well.
“I’ve been thinking a lot the last few months. They’re two exceptional horses, but this horse had really improved recently and his work had been special.
“It didn’t feel like we went a quick gallop and he lengthened right to the line. He’ll get further than a mile and he’s got a huge engine.”
As for Gosden, who was agonisingly close to ending his Guineas hoodoo, this will undoubtedly feel like a big kick in the wotsits.
Field Of Gold finished with a wet sail under Shoemark but was just too far back to bridge the gap.
Gosden said: “I warned everyone you want to watch out for the horses who haven’t run in trials, they are always dangerous.
“The race probably wasn’t run at the pace we thought and we were sitting some way back and quite frankly the winner has kicked and gone and we’ve run out of race track.
“On quick ground here the race can get away from you and it did today unfortunately, he was clawing the ground back but it was too late.
“I could see the race was lost going into the dip because we were too far back. He did nothing wrong, he was running on strongly at the end, but it’s an unforgiving track.”
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