A few swallows makes a spring return for the Flat season at Newmarket

After weeks of unseasonably warm temperatures, the only hint of spring as Newmarket opened its doors for a new season here on Tuesday was a small flight of swallows over the Rowley Mile – back from Africa in time for a wet and chilly first day at the Craven meeting. Weather-wise, it felt more like Plumpton in January than the home of Flat racing on the first afternoon of a new campaign.

But the conditions could not dampen the sense of opening-day anticipation as the first of 2025’s Guineas hopefuls went to post for their Classic trials on the Rowley Mile, before a potential tilt at racing immortality back here in less than three weeks.

The Craven meeting is all about the future, from the unraced juveniles breezing alongside the track in the morning before going under the hammer at Tattersalls a few hours later to the potential Group One winners blowing away the winter cobwebs on a course that staged the first race run under an official set of rules all the way back in 1666.

On Tuesday, it was the turn of the three-year-old fillies with Classic aspirations as 10 runners lied up for the Nell Gwyn, including six with an entry in the 1,000 Guineas on 4 May. It was one of the other four that emerged in front, however, as John and Thady Gosden’s Zanzoun, a 9-1 shot, quickened one and three quarter lengths clear of Celestial Orbit, also at 9-1, with the 20-1 chance Remaat back in third.

Zanzoun is certainly bred to win a Classic, with the uber-stallions Dubawi and Frankel on either side of her pedigree, but a trip to Paris for the Poule D’Essai Des Pouliches – the French equivalent of the 1,000 Guineas – seems a more likely target than the much shorter journey back down the road from the Gosdens’ yard in 20 days’ time.

“That could well be the case,” John Gosden said. “There is a very good Aga Khan filly [Zarigana] we saw the other day in the Prix De La Grotte, but it’s lovely to win here and we’ve got nice plans to make.”

Newmarket’s main Guineas trial for colts, the Craven Stakes over the full Classic trip of a mile, will be run here on Wednesday, but there was a likely runner in the 2,000 Guineas on the track before racing on Tuesday as Hugo Palmer took the chance to exercise Seagulls Eleven, a son of the trainer’s 2016 2,000 Guineas winner, Galileo Gold, on the Rowley Mile.

Seagulls Eleven is a 50-1 shot for the Guineas but kept very good company as a juvenile, ending his two-year-old campaign with three runs in Group One company including a one-and-a-half-length third behind Scorthy Champ and Henri Matisse, the subsequent Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf winner, in the National Stakes at the Curragh.

That form offers real hope to Palmer and Seagulls Eleven’s owners, a syndicate of current and former Brighton & Hove Albion players, that their £50k purchase – a relative pittance for a Guineas hope – will not be out of place among the best of his generation in next month’s Classic.

None of the syndicate are likely to be there to watch him run, however, as Brighton are at home to Newcastle – Palmer’s team – on the Sunday of Guineas weekend, although the goalkeeper Jason Steele was at Newmarket for Tuesday’s gallop.

“I’ve only won one Guineas and we brought his dad here to gallop as well, and they do look very similar,” Palmer said. “It’s a very open renewal, although Aidan [O’Brien] seems to sound like he’s basically got it won and he might only run one horse [Twain], and I do remember him saying that about Air Force Blue [the beaten favourite in 2016] as well.

“I think we all think that footballers play 90 minutes of football on a Saturday and spend the rest of the time racing their Ferraris around but they are incredibly busy guys. All of them played for Brighton when we bought the horse, but a few have moved on. Brighton actually play Newcastle on 1,000 Guineas day, so I think they should all come here and get absolutely wrecked the day before.”

Opera on song for the Craven

Eight of the nine runners in Wednesday’s Craven Stakes at Newmarket still hold an entry in next month’s 2,000 Guineas and half a dozen of those ended their juvenile season in Group One events, but the most interesting runner in the field is arguably Charlie Appleby’s Opera Ballo (3.35), who did not race at two and is stepping into Group-race company for the first time.

Appleby’s Notable Speech, last year’s 2,000 Guineas winner, was the first colt to win the Classic without having raced as a juvenile for 86 years. He started his racing career in minor events at Kempton in January and February, and Opera Ballo arrives at the Craven having won the same two races in impressive style.

He also posted a very fast time when quickening four lengths clear under a hand ride on his latest start, and is a decent bet at around 4-1 to improve past his more experienced opponents and preserve his unbeaten record.

Newmarket 1.50 Double Rush was much improved when switched to the all-weather for his three-year-old debut and still has plenty in hand even from his reassessed mark if he is anywhere close to that form back on turf.

Cheltenham 2.05 The novice Typhoon Flyer was an emphatic winner on decent ground at Haydock last time and is a fair price at around 5-1 to continue his progress off a 6lb higher mark.

Newmarket 2.25 No form at all in this traditional event for unraced three-year-olds, but Muhaajim boasts an impeccable pedigree and his trainer knows what is required in this race.

Cheltenham 2.40 Runners from the title-chasing yards dominate the market and Tom Lacey’s Blow Your Wad, a Grade Two-winning novice who ran well on his belated return to action in February, may have crept in at a value price as result.

Newmarket 3.00 Apollo One has a decent record fresh and made a deserved breakthrough at Group Three level on his final start last year.