Saeed bin Suroor has said he hopes Thunder Snow can put down the sort of performance in the Irish 2000 Guineas on Saturday that can erase the Kentucky Derby nightmare.
Three weeks ago the Godolphin colt entered the starting gate with a realistic chance of being competitive in the Run For The Roses.
However, Thunder Snow came out of the stalls like a bucking bronco and was pulled up after about 75 yards by Christophe Soumillon, who is in the saddle once more.
The UAE Derby Winner returned to Newmarket apparently without any sign of the mishap leaving a mental scar. The son of Australian sprinter Helmet is the only horse trained in Britain to be dispatched across the Irish Sea to take on the mighty Churchill.
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“He’s been working really well and he’s in good form,” Bin Suroor said. “There was nothing obvious in Kentucky. The horse was 100 per cent both before and after the race.
“I don’t know what happened there, he’d never done that before and he’s not done it again. It has happened now though and we will move on.”
Going in to Aidan O’Brien’s lair is a brave move by Bin Suroor. O’Brien has won the Irish 2000 Guineas six times in the last nine years, but the long-standing Godolphin handler has previous form there. The great sire Dubawi won Bin Suroor the second of his Irish Guineas victories in 2005, following in the hoofprints of Bachir 17 years ago. Both horses had to overhaul O’Brien hotpots in Oratorio and Giant’s Causeway respectively but Churchill could well be a different proposition.
Churchill is blessed with the sort of breeding that allows him to run fast in virtually any circumstance. By dual Derby winner Galileo, he has the balance, the stamina and is straightforward enough to put on show the best of his tremendous ability. He is out of the sprinter Meow, which means his change of gear is enough to bring down any significant threat on going that is currently described as good to firm.
“I think there might be some rain coming which would suit him as he won his Group 1 in France on soft, so good or good to soft ground would be fine for him,” Bin Suroor said.
“He has been working well, but he has Churchill to beat and he looks a star. We have lots of respect for him.”
Churchill has already beaten Thunder Snow, who was two lengths adrift when they met in the Dewhurst Stakes at Newmarket in October. To make things more difficult for Soumillon and Thunder Snow, Churchill is accompanied by stable companions Spirit Of Valor and Lancaster Bomber, who both helped last season’s top juvenile to win the English equivalent three weeks ago.
Thunder Snow and the Coolmore trio do not have the stage to themselves — the unbeaten Irishcorrespondent and Glastonbury Song complete the Classic sextet, but on what will be the 20th anniversary of O’Brien’s maiden victory in the Irish Guineas with Desert King, the master of Ballydoyle sounded more than hopeful.
“We’ve been very happy with him, like we were going into Newmarket, but that was his first run of the year, and we’ve been very happy with him since,” he said.
“He’s a very fast horse, he travels very well through his races and has a very quick pedigree.”
O’Brien briefly toyed with running Churchill in the Derby at Epsom next week, but as he currently has seven entries, the colt will remain at 1,600 metres for the foreseeable future.
The Irish Guineas marks a big week for Coolmore and Godolphin, who now have only three entries in the Derby after Hugo Palmer ruled out Best Of Days on Friday in preference to a run at Royal Ascot. With Best Of Days now likely to run in the King Edward VII Stakes, the Dubai-based operation are left with the Bin Suroor trio of Best Solution, Benbatl and Dubai Thunder. Sheikh Hamdan bin Mohammed, the Crown Prince of Dubai, also has Permian, the Dante Stakes winner.
Who will ride the four is still open to question, but William Buick’s name is now back in the hat after the British Horseracing Authority’s Disciplinary Panel reduced a five-day ban he picked up at York last week for careless riding to four.
Under the British rules of racing, a jockey can ride on Group 1 days if he has a suspension of four days of less.
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