Lucida and Fadhayyil look pick of today’s fillies

Cursory Glance, Found and Together Forever, three of the very best juvenile fillies of 2014, are all missing from Sunday’s 1,000 Guineas

Classic display: Ryan Moore shows his style as he pilots Gleneagles (right) to the finish post in the 2000 Guineas (PA)

Cursory Glance, Found and Together Forever, three of the very best juvenile fillies of 2014, are all missing from today’s 1,000 Guineas for one reason or another, but it doesn’t necessarily follow that we will be saluting a substandard classic winner this afternoon.

There was not a great deal on form between the above trio and Lucida and Fadhayyil, the two that have replaced them at the head of the market, and it was by no means inconceivable that the pecking order was going to change, as pecking orders so often do as horses mature from two to three.

It is no surprise that the septuagenarian trainers Jim Bolger (Lucida) and Barry Hills (Fadhayyil) have made their mark in the 1,000 Guineas. Bolger’s Finsceal Beo was arguably the best recent winner of the race, in 2007, and the County Kilkenny-based handler has compared Lucida most favourably with her.

Hills first won this race back in 1978 with Enstone Spark, and Ghanaati added a second triumph in a race-record time six years ago.

Fadhayyil still looked green when beaten a length by Lucida at Newmarket in September, losing her balance briefly when mounting her challenge, but Hills reports a perfect home preparation for his filly and it is not difficult to imagine the tables being turned.

Mick Channon does not have any previous in the 1,000 Guineas – in fact he has yet to win an English Classic – but Malabar has a serious chance of putting that right at Newmarket today. Her form is solid enough, but her case is based primarily on what might have been at Longchamp last September, when she finished fast, but too late, to be fourth in a Group One behind Found after being held up at the back in a slowly run race.

The speedball Tiggy Wiggy, if allowed to stretch out again after restraining tactics failed to produce the desired result in her recent Newbury trial, should ensure a strong pace this time and enable Malabar’s stamina to kick in. That’s the theory, anyway.

As for Tiggy Wiggy, it is hard to see her beating Redstart and Jellicle Ball, who finished in front of her at Newbury and are far more likely to stay this mile, let alone the favourites.

Qualify, Aidan O’Brien’s sole representative after the late withdrawals of Found and Together Forever, is a sound substitute, while another Irish raider, David Wachman’s Legatissimo, has been the subject of significant support following a recent impressive Gowran Park victory and the eye-catching booking of Ryan Moore.