Previous winners provide strong parallels for G1 2,000 Guineas trio

Shadow Of Light, Ruling Court and Tornado Alert boast similar profiles to three previous royal blue winners of the G1 2,000 Guineas as the trio look to claim a sixth edition of the Newmarket Classic for Godolphin on Saturday, 3 May.

Dawn Approach won at Newmarket in 2013 on the back of an outstanding juvenile campaign that saw him take the European Champion Two-Year-Old title following G1 victories in the Vincent O’Brien National Stakes and Dubai Dewhurst Stakes.

Shadow Of Light was also crowned European Champion Two-Year-Old for 2024 after a pair of G1 wins, with the close relative of Earthlight storming to victory in the Middle Park Stakes before a brave win in the Dubai Dewhurst Stakes.

Like Dawn Approach, the Charlie Appleby-trained colt makes his first appearance since the Dewhurst Stakes in the 2,000 Guineas, having enjoyed a racecourse gallop at Newmarket during the Craven meeting.

Ruling Court brings a more traditional Godolphin approach into the race on the back of a winter in Dubai, a path taken by Island Sands, who won a trial at Nad Al Sheba before his Newmarket win in 1999.

A stablemate of Shadow Of Light, Ruling Court scored on his sole appearance at Meydan, taking the Listed Jumeirah Guineas by an easy six lengths. The son of Justify made two appearances last season, following up an exciting introduction at Sandown with a third in York’s G3 Acomb Stakes.

Charlie Appleby said: “We are very pleased with both Ruling Court and Shadow Of Light, who are two different types of horse. We have earmarked Ruling Court as a potential Derby horse and we know that the 2,000 Guineas is a great trial for the Derby – we have seen that in the past with Masar. He won impressively at Meydan earlier in the year and is guaranteed to get the mile here, which came into William’s thinking as he chose which horse to ride.

“Shadow Of Light has done very well from two to three and has definitely come forward since his racecourse gallop. He continues to show the natural pace that he displayed as a juvenile, which means there is always going to be a question mark about getting a mile. Until we run him over the trip, we will be none the wiser, so this will be the acid test for him. If he wins, we will be delighted and we can look towards all the big contests over the distance, while we can look at dropping back in trip if he doesn’t see it out. Mickael rode Earthlight in all his starts, so he knows the family well, which came into our reasoning when booking him.”

Notable Speech became a rare UK Classic winner to have never previously raced on turf when he captured last year’s 2,000 Guineas following three all-weather wins – an accomplishment only matched by Ghanaati in the 2009 1,000 Guineas in modern times.  

Tornado Alert will be hoping to achieve the same feat for Saeed bin Suroor as he lines up on the back of two promising all-weather appearances. Third on his debut at Lingfield Park, the Too Darn Hot colt comfortably landed a Newcastle maiden over a mile in October.

Saeed bin Suroor said: “Tornado Alert is stepping up from a maiden win at the end of last season, but he has been going well at home and did a nice piece of work on the Limekilns gallops recently. He will get further than a mile in the future and we are hoping for a good run here before we look at stepping him up in trip for something like the Dante Stakes.”