Oxagon earns right to go for Guineas gold Oxagon threw his hat into the 2000 Guineas ring with a front-running victory in the Betway Craven Stakes. With Futurity Trophy winner Hawk Mountain and the promising Hankelow notable absentees due to the drying ground, dual Kempton scorer Hidden Force was the 11-10 favourite to strengthen Charlie Appleby’s potential challenge for the season’s opening Classic. Oxagon, not seen since finishing last of five behind Hawk Mountain in testing conditions at Doncaster in October, was a 7-4 shot for his seasonal debut in first-time cheekpieces and benefited from a controlling ride by Oisin Murphy to win comfortably by two lengths. John Gosden, who trains the winner in partnership with his son Thady, said: “We were saying after he won at Sandown (last year) we had a high opinion of him and we probably let the race get away at Doncaster (Champagne Stakes), but we’ll probably see the winner Puerto Rico back here in two weeks’ time. “I would admit he was a tad disappointing in the Dewhurst – after being one of the last off the bridle he didn’t seem to finish off up the hill. “We stupidly ran him in heavy ground at Doncaster in the Futurity, but thankfully the jockey was cleverer than me and pulled him up after two furlongs and just let him enjoy his day out. “He’s trained well and the addition of cheekpieces has just focused his mind. We popped them on for a piece of work and liked the way he went in them and I think it’s just focused him. “Things come easy to him and he’s quite dreamy at home, always looking for low-flying seagulls, so it’s just keeping him on the job at hand.” While Gosden won his second Craven with the brilliant Field Of Gold 12 months ago, the Clarehaven handler is still chasing an elusive first win in the Guineas. Coral cut Oxagon’s odds to 25-1 from 50-1 and connections are happy to roll the dice, with Gosden adding: “Another Craven, we’re quite good at winning that! “Oisin feels it’s an open Guineas and we should go for it. It doesn’t worry me that I’ve never won it. Everyone thinks I have sleepless nights about it, but it would be great to have a runner, so let’s enjoy the day and hope the horse is in great order. “The horse who won this last year had a phenomenal turn of foot. This is a nice horse, don’t get me wrong. He deserves to take his chance in the Guineas, but I guess it was a bit more black and white last year.” Dual Doncaster winner Avicenna beat fellow Godolphin-owned runner Hidden Force to the runner-up spot and his trainer Roger Varian also has Guineas ambitions, whether that be on home soil or in France. Varian said: “I’m really pleased. It’s a hard track to make up ground on when it rides quick and favours pace, especially when they don’t go very quick. It was a little messy early and they didn’t go overly quick and the winner is a good horse on his day. “The winner had experience and probably had the run of the race, but I was keen our horse got further education here today. I said to Ray (Dawson, jockey) that the place to be might be in front but I don’t think our horse is streetwise enough to go and lead them a merry dance. “I said openly before the race this is a trial and there was no point coming here and then leaving your next three months behind. He’s wintered well, trained well over the last few weeks and there will be some improvement in there and bar winning I couldn’t be more pleased. “For me he has run well enough here to consider Newmarket or ParisLongchamp. It’s looking an open year across all the Guineas this year and he looks worthy of being in contention for one or the other. “I’ll see how he comes out of the race and speak with the owner and team Godolphin and hopefully work it out over the next 10 days or so.”
