Ratings Update: Reaction to the weekend's key performances 2v1f46

Pride of place on a weekend when turf racing resumed on the Flat at Doncaster and Leopardstown hosted the year’s first classic trials was the clear-cut success of Dancing Gemini (119 from 115) in the Doncaster Mile. In what looked a particularly strong renewal of the listed contest beforehand, the strong-travelling Dancing Gemini proved to be the only one who gave his running but still gave a taking display over what looks like proving his optimum trip (contested the Derby last year) and will have strong claims of emulating last year’s winner Charyn and following up in the Group 2 Mile at Sandown.

Things were much closer over the same straight mile in the Lincoln where barely more than two lengths covered the first half-dozen. Godwinson (106 from 101) goes well fresh and provided his trainer William Haggas with a record fifth winner of the race as he got up on the line to thwart Oliver Show (107 from 102) and Orandi (105 from 102) by a nose and a neck. All three came from off the pace, Orandi the first of them to hit the front, but Oliver Show would surely have held on had he not hung left once in the lead. The winner enjoyed plenty of cover from the headwind but he’s generally progressive and should continue to give a good in top-end handicaps.

There were some smart sprinters in the listed Cammidge Trophy where Spycatcher just had to run up to his best (114) to make a successful reappearance, enhancing his good record after a break. However, neck runner-up Iberian (113 from 109), winner of the Champagne Stakes here as a two-year-old, proved at least as good as ever and might have won had he not been another to hang left, doing so markedly when holding every chance in the final furlong.                  

At the Curragh, last year’s Prix Jean-Luc Lagardere winner Camille Pissarro was an easy-to-back favourite in the listed Lester Piggott Gladness Stakes and matched his best two-year-old form (112) but found match-fit older rival Big Gossey (remains 115) half a length too good, the eight-year-old winner recording his eighth course victory. The improver, though, was the runner-up’s stablemate Officer (106p from 89p), who shaped well a further half-length back in third and is likely to stay a mile.

Classic trial focus at Leopardstown

Ballydoyle had better luck with some of their better two-year-old colts of last year who returned at Leopardstown on Sunday, though neither winner needed to improve to justify favouritism. First up, Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf winner Henri Matisse (remains 113) won the 2000 Guineas Trial with a bit in hand, produced late to get the better of a pair who had got first run. He perhaps lacks the classic potential of other colts in his stable but will still command plenty of respect wherever he goes next.

Delacroix (remains 116p) had been touched off in the Futurity Trophy at Doncaster when last seen and therefore stood out on form stepping up to a mile and a quarter in the Ballysax Stakes. He asserted for little more than hands and heels, having dictated just a modest gallop, and there remains plenty more to come from him, no doubt in another Derby trial next.

Aidan O’Brien also had the odds-on favourite for the 1000 Guineas Trial but Exactly couldn’t match her smart two-year-old form (110, made all over course and distance in the Killavullan Stakes on her final start last year). She had the worst of the draw and made up plenty of ground in the straight but was no match for the Dermot Weld-trained winner Swelter (106p from 90p) who looks a genuine classic contender, going about things in most straightforward fashion. She’d made a good impression when winning a mile maiden at the same track on her only previous start last summer and won this in a time nearly a second quicker than Henri Matisse earlier on the card.