Appleby happy with Shadow Of Light’s ‘faultless’ preparation for 2000 Guineas

Shadow Of Light is firmly on course for the Betfred 2000 Guineas, with trainer Charlie Appleby feeling confident he can make the step up to a mile.

Winner of four of his five juvenile starts, Shadow Of Light completed a quickfire Group One double in the autumn, winning the six-furlong Middle Park Stakes at Newmarket before returning to the track just two weeks later to land the seven-furlong Dewhurst.

The Lope De Vega colt will head to the May 3 Classic as a 7-1 chance with the big-race sponsor and continued his “faultless” preparation with a racecourse gallop on Wednesday.

Appleby said: “I’m pleased with that work, he’s done very well physically and looks great. It’s all systems go towards the Guineas.

“His preparation has gone faultlessly. It was always the plan to come here, he was never in line to come for a trial.

“We’re stepping up to the mile and that’s the question mark of course, but you couldn’t be worried about that from what we saw in the Dewhurst. It was very testing ground and you have to bear in mind he’d won the Middle Park two weeks earlier.

“There is a question mark going up to the mile, but we have a lot of confidence from what we saw on Dewhurst day and what we’re seeing as a physical that he’ll see the mile out.

“If he does stay great, it will open up options for the summer, and if he doesn’t he’ll be dropping back for a Commonwealth Cup, it’s quite simple in that respect.”

Appleby has won two of the last three renewals of the 2000 Guineas, with Coroebus triumphing in 2022 and Notable Speech landing the race 12 months ago and the Godolphin trainer feels Shadow Of Light is a different prospect to either of those two contenders.

He said: “Notable Speech came in as an all-weather horse who turned all the corners from the new year onwards and Coroebus was an Autumn Stakes winner who just needed more time physically.

“This horse is a half-brother to a champion two-year-old (Earthlight) and ended up being champion two-year-old himself, so he is pacier and naturally a more athletic horse. In the mornings everything is that bit more simple for him, whereas Notable Speech and Coroebus were slower burners.

“On the flip side, those two had done it at a decent level at a mile, whereas this fella hasn’t and until you’ve been there and done it, no matter how clever we all think we are, you’re not really going to know.”

Appleby has multiple 2000 Guineas options, including impressive Meydan Listed scorer Ruling Court who also worked at Newmarket.

The Justify colt is already proven at a mile and while he is viewed as a potential Derby horse, an outing in the first Classic of the year is not out of the question.

Appleby said: “We planned originally to go to Sandown (for the Classic Trial on April 25) with him and after the work this morning we’ll decipher our plan on what we’re going to do.

“He’s in the Guineas mix for sure, as well as Sandown, and the Guineas is one of the best Derby trials anyway – we’ve seen the Derby winner come from it many a time.

“The Guineas might be a race we look towards as a trial for the Derby. I was very pleased with what I saw out there this morning from him and obviously he’s come here today off the back of a run in Meydan, which visually was very impressive and he’s come out of it very well.

“We would look at him as a Derby horse, but from we feel he could be competitive in a Guineas as well. He’s the sort of horse where if he finished third or fourth in a Guineas, you’d be delighted and thinking he’s ready to step up (in trip).

“He could go to Sandown and without sounding too bullish he’d probably take a lot of beating, but you wouldn’t learn as much as you would out there in a Guineas.”