High hopes for Dubawi Gold guineas bid

Connections of Dubawi Gold are in confident mood as he prepares for another shot at Classic glory in Saturday’s Abu Dhabi Irish 2000 Guineas.

Owner Andrew Tinkler was prepared to supplement his colt for the Curragh event after his highly respectable second to Frankel at Newmarket and he was quickly installed as favourite by the bookmakers.

Although Dubawi Gold showed plenty of good form for Michael Dods last year, he has thrived since moving to Richard Hannon this season and won two Listed races at Lingfield before his 2000 Guineas effort.

“He’s absolutely spot-on,” said Tim Jones, Tinkler’s racing manager.

“He did a nice piece of work at the weekend and Richard is very happy with him.

“It’s all systems go and he will probably travel over to Ireland on Thursday.

“There are some really interesting horses in the race – Dunboyne Express is a decent horse and Aidan O’Brien has his usual smattering of entries.

“We won’t be taking any of them lightly but his Guineas run was a very solid effort and we feel he goes there as a worthy favourite.”

Tinkler has another entry in the race through the Dods-trained Ashva, who was fifth of six in last week’s Dante at York.

But Jones explained: “The system in Ireland is slightly different in that you have to forfeit horses rather than confirm them at the five-day stage.

“We’re not being clever and having him in there as a pacemaker – it’s very unlikely he’ll be running.”