2000 Guineas Garswood gamble could be telling

While the betting for the 2000 Guineas has been rightly dominated by Dawn Approach, there is another horse that Ladbrokes would not be too keen to see hack up in the Newmarket classic.

The Richard Fahey-trained Garswood has been on the recieving end of a big gamble, which has seen the colt’s price smashed into 12/1.

Given his performance on his seasonal bow in a Listed event at Newmarket, it should be no real surprise. Under a cool Tony Hamilton ride, he was held up in the rear field and travelled comfortably throughout. Ridden to lead inside the final furlong, he very quickly had the field at his mercy. While idling slightly in the closing stages, the jockey did not require his whip at any point.

Hamilton will keep the ride and, consequently, Garswood provides the Hartlepool-born jockey with his first ever chance in a Classic. It is no surprise then that the pilot is relatively bullish about his chances and believes he is thoroughly unexposed and extremely progressive.

However there are several questions that the horse Fahey believes to be his best in training has to answer, the most poignant of which being whether he will handle the step up to the mile. Two maiden defeats over six furlongs led to his trainer dropping him down to sprinting the minimum five, where he proved to be sucessful.

His latest victory did come over seven furlongs, however, and such was the comfort with which he was travelling with, it would be foolish to suggest he definitely won’t get the mile.

The 2000 Guineas will also be a massive step up in class and he will challenge some extremely talented horses, including evens favourite Dawn Approach, whose is unbeaten going into this race.

Whether he can get past him is up for debate, but Fahey will be hoping he will run with credit.

All Odds and Markets are correct as of the date of publishing.