Racing: Muqbil surprise quickens Classic pulse

The first 2,000 Guineas marker ahead of a week of Classic trials in Britain and Ireland was put down here yesterday by Muqbil, who won the Greenham Stakes but rather surprised his trainer, John Dunlop, with both the fact and the style of his victory.

The colt, ridden by Willie Supple, pulled smoothly clear of two useful yardsticks, Zafeen and Mister Links, at the end of a slowly-run edition of the seven-furlong Group Three contest to score by a length and a quarter, with the favourite, Elusive City, only fifth. Dunlop now intends sending Hamdan Al Maktoum's home-bred to the Newmarket Classic, for which his price has shrunk to 14-1.

"He hadn't actually been exciting me much at home this spring," said Dunlop, "but this was a pleasing performance. He settled, he travelled and then quickened twice like a proper horse, firstly to get there and then to lead.

"It is in my mind that when he ran second at Newmarket last year he didn't seem to come down the hill, but I suppose that could have been inexperience. I suppose we'll have to go back next month."

Muqbil, a chestnut son of Swain, is also entered in the Derby, and holds the distinction of being the only British-trained horse in the top 10 in the ante-post Epsom lists. With a dual King George VI and Queen Elizabeth Stakes winner as a sire, it might be thought that a mile and a half should be well within his stamina compass, but Dunlop warned that appearances on paper might be deceptive.

"His dam is a daughter of Shadayid, which is a fast family," he said, "and perhaps a mile may be as far as he wants to go."

Whatever the future holds for Tante Rose, winner of the equivalent fillies' trial, the Dubai Duty Free Stakes (more traditionally known as the Fred Darling), she is already assured of her place in the record books as Barry Hills' 2,500th domestic winner in a list that began with the not inappropriately named La Dolce Vita at Thirsk in 1969.

Tante Rose did not seriously ripple the 1,000 Guineas betting with her length-and-a-quarter defeat of Crystal Star – she is still available at 25-1 – and Hills has a better candidate in Geminiani. The doubt over her, though, is not her ability but her readiness for the big race three weeks today. "She is not as forward in her coat as she might be," said her trainer, "and I am not going to force her. If she comes ready, she comes, but if she doesn't, this one will not be a bad second string."

The interest and potential contained in the card here notwithstanding, this afternoon's sport at Leopardstown should provide enough evidence to satisfy Watson, never mind Sherlock Holmes. And there is good enough reason for eyes to be cast across the Irish Sea, with four of the top five in the Derby betting on parade in Co Dublin today.

Thanks to a mix-up with entries, the two market leaders, the Aidan O'Brien pair Brian Boru and Alberto Giacometti, will not be taking each other on in the Ballysax Stakes, the first of the recognised Epsom trials in Ireland and one which O'Brien has taken for the past two years with subsequent Derby winners High Chaparral and Galileo.

Alberto Giacometti, a huge Blue Riband gamble in the past week, will have his credentials thoroughly tested in the 10-furlong contest by John Oxx's charge Alamshar, also unbeaten in two runs and a narrow conqueror of Brian Boru in last year's Beresford Stakes. After Alberto has run for money, Brian Boru, winner of the Racing Post Trophy, will have his test-drive in a race simulation from stalls over the same course after the completion of the official programme, putting Michael Kinane in a happy position as regards comparisons.

Refuse To Bend, fourth favourite for the Derby and another by Sadler's Wells, puts his mile aspirations under the magnifying glass in the 2,000 Guineas Trial. Even his trainer, Dermot Weld, is looking for clues regarding Melbourne Cup winner Media Puzzle's half-brother, and today's performance will determine whether he uses the Newmarket Guineas as a stepping stone to Epsom or the more traditional Derrins-town Trial. O'Brien sends out a pair to bustle him up, France and Some Kind Of Tiger.

The Guineas favourite, Ballydoyle-trained Hold That Tiger, will wait for the big day for his seasonal debut, but the second favourite, Trade Fair, is among the entries for Newmarket's Craven Stakes on Thursday, the final of three days on the Rowley Mile.

Post-Aintree, the domestic jump season takes a back seat, but one of its final flickers, the Scottish Grand National at Ayr, provided a stirring spectacle when Ryalux, a 15-2 chance, rallied under Richie McGrath after a mistake at the last to beat Stormez and Tony McCoy by a neck and provide the winning trainer, Andy Crook, with his finest moment.