2000 Guineas Day Tips and Betting Preview Part One

The final card is starting to firm up ahead of this Saturday's Qipco 2000 Guineas. We'll be taking a look at the undercard in detail over the next few posts and there are plenty of fascinating races set to unfold before and after the feature contest. Expect a very solid Scoop6 jackpot pool on Saturday as a few weeks of carry-over should join up nicely with increased volume on Guineas day.

2:00 Qipco Sponsors British Champions Series Suffolk Handicap

This 1m1f contest gets the card kicked off nicely and it's one of the trickier races on the day with 28 contenders still in the mix for this one – all looking for their share of the £44,000 to be split amongst the top finishers. Recent winner Kay Gee Be (Fasliyev) looks set to tackle a much higher profile handicap and he's got decent experience over the Newmarket surface. A few credible runs over the past few years give you the feeling that he might be able to get up and possibly deliver this one at a solid price.

Sand Skier (Shamardal) lines up for Sheikh Hamdan Bin Mohammed Al Maktoum and this one might just be biting off a bit more than it can chew in this one. Winless for a few years, he looks okay from a ratings perspective but will likely struggle unless he is able to focus a bit more. I'd keep my eye on Tartan Gigha (Green Desert) if you're looking for a genuine spoiler – with a slight change in race tactics he could improve and wouldn't be a big surprise to finish top three.

Lightly-raced Namecheck (Shamardal) lines up for Godolphin and looks to be the betting choice in this one. The German-bred is unraced since last May but the connections tend to pick their handicap races quite well. It could be a very interesting day for Mahmood Al Zarooni and this one could get things off to a brilliant start for the blue team.

2:30 Qipco Jockey Club Stakes (Group 2)

A tough-looking field of six tackle this Group 2 encounter going 1m4f. Godolphin saddle Campagnologist (Kingmambo) and he's set for his seasonal debut after a globetrotting 2010 campaign that saw him run in Dubai, France, Italy, Germany, England and Australia. He is a multiple group winner and will likely be up pressing the leaders early in this one though I don't think he wants to set the pace himself. He hasn't raced for a bit so he should boast a decent price though you can't expect a huge amount of value in a six horse field that could still see a withdrawal.Laaheb (Cape Cross) put in a credible shift when running fourth in the Dubai Sheema Classic on a seasonal debut. The five-year-old has taken two listed scores at Newmarket in the past year and doesn't look out of place here – especially after finishing up so well in the Sheema. A Group 3 winner, look for him to get to the front early and try to steal this one.

3:10 Qipco 2000 Guineas (Group 1)

The day's feature contest is shaping up to be a coronation for Frankel (Galileo) if everything goes according to plan. Frankel commands a price as short as 4/9 with several bookmakers and could be bet down even further despite a relatively deep field set to contest the 2000 Guineas. Undefeated Frankel gets a bonus thanks to the presence of his morning workout partner Rerouted (Stormy Atlantic) who will look to set an extremely fast pace early on and hope some of the better contenders burn themselves out.

I reckon that Frankel will win the race if he runs to his potential and manages to last over the final furlong. Frankel has never tackled 1m at this level and the fact that he is so lightly-raced might just come back to burn him here, but his breeding suggests that he will not struggle with this distance at this level and should be able to handle a few panels more. A full campaign awaits Frankel this year so don't expect him to get retired after the race – unless he picks up some type of an injury while winning.

Casamento (Shamardal) is my selection to beat Frankel and I don't mean any disrespect to Roderic O'Connor (Galileo), but I just reckon Casamento will be able to take advantage of the conditions on the ground and step up a gear on the run-in. Should the upset happen, it likely won't be that Frankel has too much left to do, it's that a horse with more gas in the tank might pick him off just prior to the line. If that happens – it's going to be Casamento. His victory in the Group 1 Racing Post Trophy showed how easily he can handle the 1m distance and that was a fairly tough race. Frankel showed his stuff in the Greenham Stakes but really wasn't pushed that much – expect him to get pushed here. Deploying Casamento on the bottom-end of a forecast with Frankel up top is a decent hedge, but you just figure he might be able to make a very big statement here – and comes in as a bit of an unknown quantity – I expect big improvement in his three-year-old campaign.