Appleby has Native Trail for English 2000 Guineas, with Coroebus to spare
Charlie Appleby has driven a global Godolphin resurgence the last several seasons. Two of the last four years, with Masar in 2018 and Adayar in 2021, Appleby trained an English Derby winner for Godolphin. In North America last year, Appleby went 15-8-2-1 in graded stakes, culminating with three Breeders’ Cup winners.
For all the success, Appleby never has won the English 2000 Guineas, a hole in his résumé expected to be filled Saturday on the Newmarket heath.
Appleby and Godolphin have the Guineas favorite Native Trail, even-money favorite with British bookmakers as of Thursday. Should Native Trail falter, Coroebus, second choice in fixed-odds betting, serves as a worthy understudy.
All told, 15 went into the Guineas, run over a straight course with an uphill finish that demands a little more from these young horses than the race’s bare one-mile distance.
Native Trail already has demonstrated his course-and-distance capability, capturing the April 13 Craven Stakes, his Guineas prep race. Five for five to start his career, Native Trail, by Oasis Dream out of Needleleaf, by Observatory, capped his 2-year-old campaign with a two-length win in the Group 1 Dewhurst, a seven-furlong Newmarket contest. The colt looked like a man among boys as a juvenile, a sense that only has deepened this spring. Native Trail is an absolutely massive colt, mixing speed, power, and desire. William Buick rides him, and Native Trail stands a strong chance of making his short price stick.
Coroebus, a homebred by Dubawi out of the Teofilo mare First Victory, has his own set of supporters. He comes to the Guineas without a prep following an especially encouraging conclusion to a three-start 2-year-old campaign. All Coroebus’s races came over one mile and the last of them, an easy win going a mile at Newmarket in the Autumn Stakes, marked a solid forward move.
While Appleby looks for his first Guineas with two runners, trainer Aidan O’Brien sends out a pair seeking his 11th Guineas success. Luxembourg, Ryan Moore’s mount, had a perfect three-start 2-year-old campaign, including a win in the Group 1 Vertem Futurity Trophy over one mile at Doncaster. O’Brien’s last three Guineas winners – Magna Grecia in 2018, Saxon Warrior in 2017, and Camelot in 2011 – also won the Vertem Futurity Trophy, formerly called the Racing Post Trophy.
O’Brien’s second starter is Point Lonsdale, won his first four races at age 2 and was odds-on in the Group 1 National Stakes on Sept. 12, but there ran into Native Trail, who handed him a 3 1/2-length defeat.
Perfect Power is the only other entrant priced at less than 20-1 as of Thursday, and his chances of seeing out the one-mile trip at this class level aren’t great. Perfect Power excelled at five- and six-furlong sprints at age 2 and got seven furlongs winning the Greenham Stakes at Newbury on April 16, but the Guineas is a different kettle of fish.
The Newmarket course Thursday was rated “good.” Post time for the Guineas is 10:40 a.m., and you can get a wager down at DRFBets.com.