Field Of Gold, favourite for Saturday\u2019s Irish 2,000 Guineas at the Curragh, poses a fascinating \u201cback-or-oppose\u201d puzzle for punters after his fast-finishing second behind Ruling Court in the English equivalent this month.<\/p>\n
Kieran Shoemark, the colt\u2019s rider in the Newmarket Classic, lost his job<\/a> as John and Thady Gosden\u2019s stable jockey after what was seen by many as an unlucky defeat on the Rowley Mile. Colin Keane, Ireland\u2019s champion in six of the last eight seasons, will be holding the reins when Field Of Gold sets off at around even-money in an attempt to emulate his sire, Kingman, who won the Irish 2,000 in 2014 after finishing second at Newmarket a few weeks earlier.<\/p>\n While it is easy to blame a jockey for a fast-finishing defeat, though, it is rarely that simple and in the context of Saturday\u2019s Classic, the Newmarket form feels suspect. Several very obvious candidates from 2024\u2019s juvenile crop were missing from the lineup, the early pace was slow and the winner\u2019s timefigure was well below average for a Classic.<\/p>\n Saturday\u2019s field, in fact, could prove to have more strength in depth than Field Of Gold faced last time, and while the unbeaten Cosmic Year, another runner for the Juddmonte operation, has obvious claims, the pick of the prices may be Hotazhell <\/strong>(3.40) at around 8-1. Jessica Harrington\u2019s colt edged out Delacroix, a leading ante-post fancy for the Derby, in last season\u2019s Group One Futurity Trophy on heavy ground at Doncaster but has strong form \u2013 including a Group Two win over Saturday\u2019s track and trip \u2013 on better ground too.<\/p>\n Haydock 1.15:<\/strong> The four-year-old Candonomore <\/strong>already looks more consistent than he did last year \u2013 he was gelded over the winter \u2013 and a 4lb rise after he completed a quick double for the season at Leicester this month is largely accounted for by Amie Waugh\u2019s 3lb claim.<\/p>\n Goodwood 1.30:<\/strong> Tuco Salamanca, <\/strong>a 12-1 shot in early betting, made a very satisfactory return to turf at Ascot this month, posting a useful time in the process.<\/p>\n Field Of Gold is the favourite for the Irish 2,000 Guineas at the Curragh. Photograph: Mike Egerton\/PA<\/p>\n Haydock 1.50:<\/strong> The form of King Casper\u2019s <\/strong>three-length defeat of Transparent at Newmarket last time is the strongest on offer in what is always a useful three-year-old handicap.<\/p>\n Beverley 2.10:<\/strong> Ali Shuffle, the likely favourite, remains unbeaten, had the ideal draw at Chester last time and may face a different calibre of opponent here. Angel Numbers, <\/strong>a smooth winner on debut at Chepstow 11 days ago, is speedily bred and has obvious scope for progress.<\/p>\n Haydock 2.25:<\/strong> An ideal eight runners for each-way purposes and Tasmania <\/strong>is an interesting option. Sir Mark Prescott ran her in Group One company for her stable debut last summer and she remains a blank canvas for her new trainer, as today\u2019s race will be only her fourth since finishing third in the French Oaks in June 2023.<\/p>\n Beverley 2.45:<\/strong> Three of the six runners were winners on debut last time while Andrew Balding\u2019s Old Is Gold <\/strong>was only third at Ascot this month, but he shaped very well in defeat behind Military Code, the second-favourite for the Norfolk Stakes at Royal Ascot next month.<\/p>\n skip past newsletter promotion<\/a><\/p>\n The best of our sports journalism from the past seven days and a heads-up on the weekend\u2019s action<\/p>\n Privacy Notice: <\/strong>Newsletters may contain info about charities, online ads, and content funded by outside parties. For more information see our Privacy Policy<\/a>. We use Google reCaptcha to protect our website and the Google Privacy Policy<\/a> and Terms of Service<\/a> apply.<\/p>\n after newsletter promotion<\/p>\n Quick GuideGreg Wood’s Saturday tipsShow<\/p>\n Haydock\u00a0<\/b>1.15 Candonomore 1.50 King Casper (nb) 2.25 Tasmania 3.00 Powerful Glory 3.30 Rumstar (nap) 4.10 Maelstrom 4.40 Gibside.<\/p>\n Goodwood\u00a01.30<\/b> Tuco Salamanca 2.05 Amiloc 2.35 Blue Nguru 3.15 Perfect Your Craft 3.45 French Master 4.20 Empress Of All 4.55 Walnut.<\/p>\n Beverley\u00a01.35<\/b> Tarriance 2.10 Artista 2.45 Old Is Gold 3.20 Spring Chorus 3.55 Diligent Resdev 4.25 Dandy\u2019s Angel 5.00 Light Up Our Stars.\u00a0<\/p>\n Catterick Bridge\u00a0<\/b>1.40 Highfield Sunshine 2.15 Hype Merchant 2.50 Captain Potter 3.35 Reservardo 4.05 Between The Sticks 4.35 Synergism 5.13 Beauzon.\u00a0<\/p>\n Cartmel\u00a0<\/b>4.00 D Day Arvalenreeva 4.30 Getaway Vic 5.05 Mermaids Cave 5.38 Fairlawn Flyer 6.08 Hurricane Ali 6.38 Big Bee Hive 7.08 Toombridge.\u00a0<\/p>\n Salisbury\u00a0<\/b>4.45 Ardisia 5.20 Billy Mill 5.50 Stanhope Gardens 6.20 Realign 6.50 Jasour 7.20 Kosometsuke 7.50 Babylon 8.20 Marioento.\u00a0<\/p>\n Windsor\u00a0<\/b>5.30 Al Waseela 6.00 Angel Of Anfield 6.30 Little Saver 7.00 Dream Out Loud 7.35 Strike 8.05 Phaedra 8.35 Serenity Dream.\u00a0<\/p>\n Thank you for your feedback.<\/p>\n Haydock 3.00:<\/strong> Symbol Of Honour is an obvious market leader on his win at Newbury last weekend but this is a quick turnaround. Powerful Glory, <\/strong>last year\u2019s Mill Reef Stakes winner, could take advantage.<\/p>\n Goodwood 3.10:<\/strong> Several promising three-year-old fillies in opposition and the once-raced novice stakes winner Perfect Your Craft <\/strong>could emerge as the pick of them.<\/p>\n Haydock 3.30:<\/strong> Rumstar <\/strong>returned with a career-best at Newmarket this month with four of today\u2019s opponents behind him and looks the type to improve through the sprinting ranks as the season develops.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Field Of Gold, favourite for Saturday\u2019s Irish 2,000 Guineas at the Curragh, poses a fascinating \u201cback-or-oppose\u201d puzzle for…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":127514,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4107],"tags":[1071,79,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-127513","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-racing","8":"tag-racing","9":"tag-sports","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114561850006517066","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/127513","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=127513"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/127513\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/127514"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=127513"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=127513"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=127513"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}