1000 Guineas Tips: Tuesday to light up Sunday at Newmarket

14 runners are set to take their chance in the 2022 QIPCO 1000 Guineas at Newmarket on Sunday.  We preview the first fillies Classic of the season here and side with a Ballydoyle runner for the Group 1 showpiece...

Unlike in the previous day's 2000 Guineas, the 2022 edition of the 1000 Guineas does not have one outstanding candidate dominating the market. Aidan O'Brien has won the last three renewals of this Classic and also claimed five of the last six runnings of the race, so it is perhaps unsurprising to see the master of Ballydoyle is responsible for the favourite at this stage. Tenebrism is the chosen mount of stable jockey Ryan Moore and she had an impressive if sparse juvenile season, winning in March at Naas in a maiden before a 181 day break. She returned in the  Group One  Juddmonte Cheveley Park Stakes and was not particularly well fancied, sent off a 14/1 chance. Her performance needs marking up due to her slow start and indeed she looked in trouble even two furlongs out, but her quickening speed to seal the race marked her out as one from the top drawer. 

Her closest market rival at the time of writing is Discoveries for Jessica Harrington and Shane Foley. She had a busier juvenile season than the favourite and her progress was evident for all to see. In her penultimate start she was beaten by Agartha by four and a half lengths on soft at the Curragh in August, but made amends at the same track a month later on good ground when avenging that result and seeing off Agartha by 3/4 of a length. The fast ground on Sunday will certainly help her and she should run well. The top two in the market have been drawn in five and six respectively so there can be no hard luck stories if it comes down to a battle between this duo.

The form team so far this season, and indeed last season as a matter of fact, is the deadly duo of Charlie Appleby and William Buick. It has become a regularity to see the two guide a Godolphin runner to success recently and they are represented in this Classic by Wild Beauty. She recently won the Group Three Dubai Duty Free Stakes at Newbury to mark herself out as a bona-fide contender for this race and looks to be a shade overpriced for such an in-form and canny operation. French raider Malavath will be looking to be the first raider across The Channel since Miss France in 2014 to taste British Classic success and her reappearance win at Deauville showed she retained all her two year old ability. A negative for her is that all her best performances seem to have come with some cut in the ground and that will not be the case come Sunday.

Zellie is another French raider at a slightly bigger price and of the two would be my preference in this particular race. Despite being beaten by Malavath in the aforementioned race at Deauville she should be more suited than her rival for this contest and the extra furlong should play into her hands. Juncture represents Colin Keane and Ger Lyons and looked above average when cruising to an impressive win on the all-weather at Dundalk. The Dark Angel filly will have to step up but Juddmonte don't often send runners out for the experience and she must be respected.

The aforementioned Juddmonte Cheveley Park Stakes saw Sandrine sent off 3/1 and she finished just three lengths off this race's favourite and yet is almost eight times as big of a price at the moment. Andrew Balding is attempting to send her for Classic glory on her seasonal debut and it will be a tall order but if she has learned to settle better over the winter she could give the market principals something to think about. 

Amenyah looked a classy individual for Roger Varian when reappearing and winning the Rossdales Maiden Fillies' Stakes over seven furlongs in what seemed to be second gear. That race was only eighteen days prior to this engagement and she would have to take a marked step up again but she is seriously unexposed and the fact her trainer has left her in to take her chance here speaks volumes.

It looks to be a field packed full of potential but the selection is TUESDAY for Aidan O'Brien and Coolmore. The record of the connections is ridiculously strong and Tuesday's profile is similar to other previous Ballydoyle winners Winter, Mother Earth and Hermosa in that she has been lightly raced and comes into this race behind a more high profile filly from the same yard in the market. O'Brien's second (or even third, fourth and fifth) strings are never runners to discount in Classics as they are all regally bred and can improve markedly for their winter breaks. Tuesday was touched off by Discoveries on debut in June 2021 but to my eye looked the better horse on the day and she oozed class on her reappearance at Naas in late March, travelling ultra powerfully and putting the race to bed with minimum fuss when nudged by her rider. She won as a 2/5 shot should but there was something about that performance which really captured my imagination and I will be disappointed if she is not bang there come the finish.