Newmarket betting tips: Aidan O’Brien can force his way into the record books

Air Force Blue
Alan Crowhurst/Getty Images
Andy Stephens29 April 2016

Aidan O’Brien can make history at Newmarket tomorrow by claiming an eighth QIPCO 2000 Guineas triumph via Air Force Blue.

The master trainer has nurtured many great champions over the past two decades and Air Force Bluethe best two-year-old he has handled, can join them.

Three runaway wins in Group One company last year marked the colt down as an exceptional thoroughbred and he showed his effectiveness on the Rowley Mile course when storming clear in the Dewhurst Stakes in October.

On that evidence, the extra furlong he tackles will be no problem.

This will be his first run since but O’Brien is sticking to a trusted formula because his previous seven 2000 Guineas winners were also making their reappearance. There is always the chance that over the winter he has been caught up by his peers — akin to the primary school bully finding life very different on the first day of his secondary education — but O’Brien reports that he has thrived physically.

If he has trained on, and there is nothing to suggest otherwise, then his dozen rivals face a torrid time trying to keep up with him and the world’s No1 jockey Ryan Moore. Unfortunately, the bookmakers have taken all these factors into consideration and Air Force Blue is 8-13 to give O’Brien win No8. That would be one more than John Scott managed between 1842 and 1862.

Galileo Gold, who will be ridden by Frankie Dettori, is the each-way alternative at around 14-1. The Hugo Palmer-trained colt, whose three successes last year included a victory in the Vintage Stakes at Goodwood, impressed in a racecourse gallop at Newmarket a couple of weeks ago and promises to be well served by an end-to-end gallop over a mile on ground with some give in it.

Sunday’s QIPCO 1,000 Guineas revolves around the O’Brien-trained pair of Minding and Ballydoyle.

They have each won big races at the expense of the other and their third clash should resolve which is superior.

The betting and stable vibes suggest heavily that Minding, brilliant winner of last year’s Fillies’ Mile, will come out on top but Ballydoyle has little, if anything, to find with her to judge by their previous meetings and, at around 11-2, may represent better value provided conditions do not deteriorate.

Either way, the all-conquering O’Brien should again be celebrating.

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