Gleneagles

Hi, sof, I've put my thoughts about the race on the Derby thread.

Looked harder work yesterday than at Newmarket but better on the clock when adjusted for the going.Probably a better race overall.Unless the French come over the St James Palace looks a given.

Hi, SoF, I've changed my earlier assessment of Gleaneagles in the Guineas. I said he was probably about as good as Australia over 1m but that was underestimating him, Australia's mile form wasn't that special. If I was comparing him to any of O'Brien's previous 3yo milers ability wise it would be Henrythenavigator, who for me narrowly put up the best Guineas winning performance of all his runners.

Assessing races, racehorses, times, etc is like a lot of other tasks, sometimes you're really on your game and other times not, I can now see I definitely wasn't when I pondered over the Guineas card.

I think when talking about a horse's future, almost equal to its ability is how easy a time it has when gaining its victories and the fact that Gleneagles had a pretty comfortable victory at Newmarket bodes well. I wouldn't worry at all about the workmanlike win at the Curragh as that was slowly run.

He's going to be very hard to beat, and as I believe the 3yo allowance in the summer is too much over a mile it'd take a truly outstanding older miler to beat him, I doubt we'll see one of those. I can see him going unbeaten in Europe but it depends on how much he exerts himself in his next few races, his running style is a big plus in that regard.