Air Force Blue, Stormy Antarctic Guineas Favs

A pair of colts by Kentucky stallions—Air Force Blue and Stormy Antarctic—are the respective top two favorites for the QIPCO two Thousand Guineas (Eng-I) April 30 at Newmarket.

They are among 17 colts remaining eligible April 25 at the five-day confirmation stage for the £500,000, one-mile contest that is the first British Classic of the season.

A three-time group I winner at age 2, Kentucky-bred Air Force Blue is the hot 4-6 favorite for Guineas, in which he is expected to make his season debut. By Claiborne Farm stallion War Front  , he was bred by Arthur Hancock's Stone Farm near Paris, Ky.

Campaigned by Coolmore and partners, Air Force Blue will look for a fourth successive group I win after scoring clear victories in the six-furlong Keeneland Phoenix in August and seven-furlong Goffs Vincent O'Brien National Stakes in September, both at the Curragh, and Dubai Dewhurst, also at seven furlongs, in October at Newmarket to cap his five-start juvenile campaign at 4-1-0.

Air Force Blue is trained by Aidan O'Brien, who has won the Guineas seven times previously.

"Air Force Blue has wintered very well and enjoyed a faultless preparation," said Coolmore representive Kevin Buckley.  "He has developed physically and his training regime has gone perfectly.

"But he is still a young horse—you have to remember that he will not have reached his third birthday until next Monday.

"There has to be some form of concern about him staying the mile simply because he hasn't done it before. But both his training and his physique suggest that it should be fine and we are fairly confident that he will get the trip.

Coolmore's M.V. Magnier landed Air Force Blue, produced by the Maria's Mon mare Chatham, for $490,000 from his breeders consignment at the 2014 Keeneland September yearling sale.

British-bred Stormy Antarctic, a son of Hill 'n' Dale Farms' resident Stormy Atlantic  , is 6-1 second-favorite after an easy win in the Craven Stakes (Eng-III) on his season debut April 14 going the Guineas distance at Newmarket, where he is based with trainer Ed Walker.

Owned by Hong Kong businessman Siu Pak Kwan, Stormy Antarctic won the rain-soaked Craven by 3 1/2 lengths in a heavy thunderstorm while taking his career record to 3-1-2 from six starts that include a very narrow defeat—a head behind Johannes Vermeer—in the Criterium International (Fr-I) on soft turf at Saint-Cloud in November.

"He ran with the choke out for the large part of the eight-furlong contest, but George Baker did a great job of anchoring him and conserving energy," Walker said on his website about the Craven. "When George angled him out and allowed him to get on with it, he willingly skipped past the field in an effortless manner to win under hands and heels.

Bloodstock agent Hubert Guy bought Stormy Antarctic's dam, the Doyen mare Bea Remembered, who was group-placed in Ireland, for 60,000 guineas at the 2011 Tattersalls December mare sale. He raced her in the U.S. in 2012--one start at Gulfstream Park Feb. 25, where she was unplaced--in partnership with John Sikura's Hill 'n' Dale Equine Holdings and Michel Zerolo. Bred that season to Stormy Atlantic, Bea Remembered was sent to that year's Keeneland November sale with Stormy Antarctic in utero and sold for $55,000 to Atlantic Bloodstock.

Stormy Antarctic's breeder is listed  as East Bloodstock. His current connections secured him through SackvilleDonald for 200,000 guineas ($310,442) at the 2015 Tattersalls Craven breeze-up sale.

"A lot of people are pigeonholing him as a mud lark which I feel is unjust at this stage," Walker said. "He is a very good moving colt, and I have certainly not been looking for soft ground, it has just materialized that way. There is no doubt that he copes with soft ground very well, but is it a necessity? Not in my opinion."

The going at Newmarket is currently rated as good. The final field for Guineas will be announced April 28.

For entries, click here.