Colts Gather For Craven Puzzle

With no standout member of the line-up, Thursday's G3 Craven S. at Newmarket may offer more clues as to the 2000 Guineas prospects of those in absentia who share the stables of the main contenders. Ballydoyle are perhaps scouting the local opposition to City Of Troy with Cambridge (Ire) (Dubawi {Ire}), while Godolphin saddle Native Approach (GB) (Too Darn Hot {GB}) possibly with a view to weighing up where their Notable Speech (GB) (Dubawi {Ire}) sits. Andre Fabre is here again with Baron Edouard De Rothschild's TDN Rising Star Alcantor (Fr) (New Bay {GB}), but he was found slightly wanting at the highest level last term as was Prince Faisal Bin Khaled & Najd Stud's fellow TDN Rising Star Eben Shaddad (Calyx {GB}) representing the Gosdens. Eben Shaddad currently occupies favouritism and will provide more evidence as to the merit of City Of Troy who galloped him and others into the ground in the G1 Dewhurst S. here in October.

Cautious Approach…

Charlie Appleby galloped his two main Guineas contenders at the track on Wednesday, but that is not to say that the Kempton winner Native Approach could not join them on the first Saturday in May. “He looks great at home, but he's got to go and switch it on on the turf now,” he said. “I'm always one who would rather just sit before I get too bolshy over what they have achieved or what they could achieve–like Notable Speech, he's doing it at a different level at the moment. At the end of the day, from the outside looking in, the only way you can beat City Of Troy is by an unexposed three-year-old, because what he beat last year, I don't see anything reversing the form myself.”

Is There More From Alcantor?

Fabre looked to have a serious Classic contender on his hands in Alcantor last term, but despite winning Saint-Cloud's G3 Prix Thomas Bryon he was unable to impose himself on the G1 Criterium International which has taken a few knocks already this season. Whatever the outcome on Thursday, his trainer has no intention of returning next month. “He has no plan to come for the English Guineas, the French is a possible option,” he revealed. Of the remainder, Jane Chapple-Hyam has two intriguing runners in the dual all-weather winner Champagne Prince (GB) (Lope De Vega {Ire}) and Hugo Morriss and Kirsten Rausing's Sons And Lovers (GB) (Study Of Man {Ire}) who overcame greenness to win on his sole start over seven furlongs in October.