Cliffs pencilled in for Greenham return

Richard Hannon will give Canford Cliffs a 2000 Guineas prep run in the Greenham Stakes.

The Marlborough trainer confirmed that last year’s runaway Coventry Stakes winner will have his first start of the season over seven furlongs at Newbury on April 17.

Canford Cliffs was ante-post favourite for the stanjames.com-sponsored mile Classic until having his colours lowered on his third and final start of the season in the Group One Prix Morny at Deauville in August.

He is now a 10-1 chance for the Guineas with Sky Bet, but Hannon says the Tagula colt has thrived over the winter.

Speaking from Barbados where he is on holiday, Hannon said: “Canford Cliffs looks a picture. He’s done really well over the winter and I couldn’t be more pleased with him.

“He will run in one of the trials, probably the Greenham. I want to start him off over seven furlongs rather than a mile and that looks his race.

“He’s a good horse – make no mistake. And if all goes well he’ll run in the Guineas after that.”

Hannon, whose 181 winners last season earned more than £2.75million, thinks Dick Turpin, who won the Group Two Richmond Stakes last summer before signing off the season with a disappointing sixth place in the Dewhurst Stakes at Newmarket, could return there for his seasonal reappearance.

He said: “I can’t put him in the same league as Canford Cliffs, but he’s a very nice horse and once he fills his frame he’ll be even better.

“He looks stronger and he’s thrived over the winter. We will look at something like the European Free Handicap (at Newmarket on April 14) for him to start off with and we hope he’ll make up into a Classic colt, too.”

2000 Guineas – Sky Bet odds: 3-1 St Nicholas Abbey, 10-1 Arcano, Canford Cliffs, Steinbeck, Awzaan, 12-1 Kingsfort, 14-1 Elusive Pimpernel, Fencing Master, 16-1 Cape Blanco, 25-1 bar.