Nannina may swerve prep outing

Nannina, general 6-1 second favourite for the Stan James 1000 Guineas on May 7, could go straight to Newmarket, according to trainer John Gosden.

A winner of three of her five starts as a two-year-old, she rounded off last season with victory in the Group One Fillies’ Mile, beating current Vodafone Oaks favourite Alexandrova.

Gosden has recently moved into Clarehaven Stables, previously the home of the late Alec Stewart, but the former master of Manton says Nannina has settled into her new surroundings without turning a hair.

“Nannina has settled in and she is doing well,” said Gosden.

“I haven’t done any fast work with her yet and she is still a little bit woolly in her coat, but most of them are at this stage with the way the weather has been.

“We will maybe go straight to the Guineas with her and I wouldn’t be frightened of stepping her up in trip after that.

“My gut feeling is that she is a mile and a quarter filly as I couldn’t be sure she would get a mile and a half in the Oaks.

“There is quite a lot of stamina in her pedigree so I think we will just have to get her on the track and see for ourselves.”

Gosden is putting the finishing touches to his new yard and admitted he always wanted to return to train at racing’s headquarters.

“It feels like I’ve finally come home after starting off here with Sir Noel Murless in the 1970’s,” he continued.

“It does disrupt the horses moving stables though, and even though it’s a lovely yard, we’ve had to do quite a lot of work on it but all the horses have just about moved in now. I couldn’t be more pleased with how the move has gone.

“I like the location and I’ve always wanted to wind up training here on Bury Road in Newmarket,” Gosden told At The Races.