Classic Trials in UK Showing Decline

Racing journalist Greg Wood has opined that the need for the traditional Classic trials are in decline, reports theguardian.com. "Guineas trials now seem to have been consigned to history too. Four of the 11 runners in Saturday's Greenham Stakes, including Esquire, the winner, were geldings, and therefore unable to run in any British Classics. As for the Craven meeting at Newmarket last week, Haatem, who took the main 2000 Guineas trial, is 25-1 for the Classic on 4 May, while Pretty Crystal, the Nell Gwyn Stakes winner, will need to be supplemented to run in the 1,000 Guineas the following day," wrote Wood. He observed that modern training methods have made traditional trials largely unnecessary for top racing yards. Nearly all of the 2,000 Guineas winners since 2004, with the exception of Frankel, Night Of Thunder, Poetic Flare, and Makfi, have effectively started their season in the Classic itself. Even Chaldean, the victor from the previous year who will stand at Cambridge Stud in New Zealand in 2024, experienced an unusual journey, beginning in the Greenham where Frankie Dettori was unseated shortly after the start, prompting the horse to gallop freely to the finish line. Whether the diminishing significance of Guineas trials truly impacts the overall landscape of racing is debatable.