Kingsbarns© Photo Healy Racing
Kingsbarns and Cristoforo Colombo, Aidan O'Brien's two big hopes for the Qipco 2000 Guineas, may have their first runs of the season in the Newmarket Classic.
The Ballydoyle trainer reports both horses, as well as Camelot, his star three-year-old of 2012 who won the Guineas and both the English and Irish Derbies, to be building steadily towards the new campaign.
"They're going nicely. I don't know if the two Guineas horses will run before Newmarket, but I would say maybe they won't," said O'Brien.
Both Kingsbarns and Cristoforo Colombo are towards the head of the ante-post betting for the 2000 Guineas on May 4 behind Jim Bolger's Dawn Approach following excellent two-year-old campaigns.
Kingsbarns, who is favourite for the Investec Derby, won the Racing Post Trophy at Doncaster in October while Cristoforo Colombo was a close fourth to Reckless Abandon in the Middle Park Stakes at Newmarket on his final start of the year.
Camelot was last year's Classic hero and is said to have made a full recovery from a bout of colic suffered just days after disappointing in the Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe at Longchamp in October.
