Meehan confident Blues will stay Guineas trip

Lambourn trainer Brian Meehan is confident his Sagitta 2000 Guineas hope Twilight Blues will stay the distance of the Newmarket Classic.

The son of Bluebird made a winning reappearance in the Victor Chandler European Free Handicap over seven furlongs at Newmarket last month but will be in unknown territory racing over a mile for the first time on Saturday.

He said: ‘‘I’ve absolutely no doubt he’ll stay. He stormed up the hill off a good pace in the Free Handicap.’’

Meehan would not want too much rain for his charge.

He said: ‘‘As long as the ground doesn’t go slow. I wouldn’t be too happy about that.

‘‘He won on pretty good ground at the Craven Meeting so as long as it’s good or faster I’m happy.

‘‘He’s tip-top in great condition.

‘‘We’ve got to get through tomorrow and Saturday but up to now things couldn’t have gone better.’’

Connections of outsider Where Or When are satisfied with the colt’s draw in stall 14 of 22.

Robert Mills, son and assistant to the colt’s trainer Epsom-based Terry Mills, said: ‘‘I think it’s where we want to be. We don’t want to be too low because it tends to be a bit messy sometimes up there early on.

‘‘He’s going to be patiently ridden you can sit and put him in where you want and come a bit late but we’re happy with the draw.

‘‘We are just monitoring what sort of weather they have up there. We don’t want to get too soft for us.

‘‘He’s crying for the mile, even a touch further but he he’s also got so much speed.’’

On his final start last term Where Or When finished a staying-on fourth behind Aidan O’Brien’s trio Rock Of Gibraltar, Landseer and Tendulkar in the Darley Dewhurst Stakes in October.

‘‘It was the wrong ground,’’ Mills added. ‘‘It rained so hard there the night before that it really killed his chance off.

‘‘They crawled early on and then sprinted and he couldn’t quicken on the softish ground but he still put in a very creditable effort.’’

The son of Danehill Dancer has done well over the winter as Mills explained.

He said: ‘‘He’s done fantastically. Physically he’s grown and he put on 47 kilos over the winter

we’ve trimmed that down a bit.’’

There were just seven withdrawals from the 2000 Guineas following today’s final declaration stage.

Five of the absentees - Castle Gandolfo, Century City, Creekview, Della Francesca and

Johannesburg - are trained by O’Brien, who still has four representatives in the £300,000 (€485,000) Group One headed by hot ante-post favourite Hawk Wing.

Jamie Spencer takes the ride on Hawk Wing while Johnny Murtagh rides Sir Alex Ferguson’s Rock Of Gibraltar.

The Ballydoyle maestro’s other runners are Tendulkar, the mount of George Duffield and the Paul Scallan-ridden Sholokov.

The other two withdrawals were Godolphin’s Waldenburg and the Mark Tompkins-trained Tahitian Storm.

Godolphin are left with three runners in the Rowley Mile test with Frankie Dettori on Naheef, Richard Hills booked for Meshaheer and Parasol, who will be partnered by Daragh O’Donohoe.