Haafhd flying ahead of Guineas

Connections of Haafhd issued a very positive bulletin over their UltimateBet.com 2000 Guineas contender today as a total of 21 colts stood their ground for the Newmarket Classic at the confirmation stage.

Angus Gold, racing manager to owner Hamdan Al Maktoum, said the brilliant Craven Stakes winner has delighted trainer Barry Hills over the last week and a half, including in a gallop on Saturday.

Gold enthused: “We had to be very pleased with the way he won his trial and I know Barry has been pleased since then, as was Richard Hills after riding him in work at the weekend.

“All things being equal he has to run well in the Guineas because when you reflect on his two-year-old form we didn’t feel he was quite right after he was beaten at Doncaster, while, as I’ve said before, if more use had been made of him in the Dewhurst he would have gone close in that.

“He was bang there with the best of the two-year-olds in England and Newmarket was a very encouraging start in a good time.”

All the leading fancies stood their ground, including ante-post favourite One Cool Cat, whose trainer Aidan O’Brien has also left in Grand Reward, Newton and Tumblebrutus.

O’Brien has won the race twice in the past with King Of Kings (1998) and Rock Of Gibraltar (2002) who, like One Cool Cat, ran at Newmarket without the benefit of a prep-race.

Dermot Weld said that Grey Swallow was in good form but that the Guineas may come “a week too soon” for his recent Leopardstown winner.

Revealing that some of his horses have not been totally healthy over the last few weeks, Weld said: “We’ve had problems of different sorts with little coughs and colds in the stable, which has meant many of the horses have been slow coming together.

"But that does not include Gray Swallow, who is completely healthy and will run well at Newmarket.

“I’ve always maintained that he would be a better colt come Irish 2000 Guineas time and that the Newmarket race would come a week too soon.

“We’ll have to see what happens on Saturday, but I’ve got no complaints about the ground and if it’s good it will suit him.”

There has been plenty of money around for Salford City of and trainer David Elsworth described his contender as “very exciting”.

Salford City won a maiden by seven lengths at Newbury last October on his only start at two, and returned to the Berkshire track for his reappearance in the Lane’s End Greenham Stakes where he kept up the good work with a convincing victory in the Group Three contest.

Reflecting on his last-to-first triumph in the Greenham, Elsworth said: “I don’t know how good the form is, all I do know is that it was a fair bit stronger than the maiden he won.

“I wanted to see him going forward at the end of the race and in that sense it was very pleasing and he does look as if he will go further.”

Champion jockey Kieren Fallon will take over from the injured Richard Hughes on Three Valleys in the big race.

Hughes, who is the retained rider to Three Valleys’ owner Khalid Abdullah, punctured a lung in a fall at Leicester on Saturday and could be out of action for three weeks.

“Three Valleys is going to be ridden Kieren Fallon. He has confirmed that to Roger Charlton,” Abdullah’s racing manager Teddy Grimthorpe said.

Three Valleys was very keen on his first attempt at a mile on his reappearance in the Craven Stakes over the Guineas course and distance earlier this month and finished second, beaten five lengths by Haafhd.

However, Grimthorpe is confident the colt, who pleased connections in his work on Sunday, will get the Guineas trip.

He said: “In my own mind and in Roger’s mind, we are pretty comfortable he will stay a mile. I have no qualms about that.

“He ran to the line in the Craven and I’m much more worried about making up five lengths on Haafhd than whether he would stay or not.”

Godolphin’s three entries Snow Ridge, Bayeux and Byron arrived in Newmarket today from Dubai.

On the betting front, One Cool Cat is down to 15-8 for the 2000 Guineas while Salford City is a 9-2 chance with totesport.

Totesport spokesman Paul Petrie said: “Although there are some cracking horses in the race it looks like the 2000 Guineas will be contested between One Cool Cat and Salford City.

“At the moment the money is heading in One Cool Cat’s direction despite his lack of a prep-race.

"Mind you, that tactic was good enough for Rock Of Gibraltar and King Of Kings, so punters are clearly thinking history will repeat itself.”