French 2000 Guineas, the Poule d'Essai des Poulains

Irish trainer Aidan O'Brien has made two successful raids on the French 2000 Guineas, the Poule d'Essai des Poulains, twice in the last five years, and the Ballydoyle maestro can repeat the dose on Sunday with Honoured Guest, a 5/1 chance with Ladbrokes. The Danehill colt is not dissimilar to his stablemate who won this last term, Aussie Rules, and has progressed with every race, looking a very smart prospect indeed when cosily beating nine rivals the Listed Loughbrown Stakes The Curragh last month. It looks significant that connections have opted to supplement Honoured Guest for this race, given that O'Brien is also responsible for a further three of the 14 runners - Astronomer Royal, Brave Tin Soldier and Excellent Art - and the booking of Gerald Mosse, who has won this race twice in the last decade, catches the eye. Mosse rides Longchamp extremely well and Honoured Guest looks just the type that well excel at this tight track, as he travels well and has a good turn of foot, something which is crucial what with the relatively short home straight at the Paris venue, and the way French races are invariably run - i.e. sprint finishes. Excellent Art, the mount of Jamie Spencer, is probably the next best of the O'Brien-trained quartet, although the son of Pivotal is untried over further than six furlongs, so there's a certain amount of guesswork involved with regard to his stamina. Peter Chapple-Hyam won this Classic with Victory Note in 1998 and relies on Tariq this year. The son of Kyllachy should be better for his reappearance fifth behind Major Cadeaux in the Greenham, but he is another that may turn out to be better suited to sprint distances. The home contingent are headed by likely favourite Battle Paint and the Andre Fabre-trained Visionario, second and sixth respectively behind Holy Roman Emperor in the Grand Criterium last year. The latter, whose trainer won this in 2003 and 2001, was probably a shade below par on that occasion. The Aga Khan-owned colt, who was unbeaten in three starts prior to the Grand Criterium, for which he was sent off favourite, made a promising comeback in the Prix de Fontainebleau here on April 15 and, although Battle Paint was again in front in second, I reckon that Visionario might reverse the placings this time. Verdict - 1pt Honoured Guest @ 5/1 (Ladbrokes)