Avicenna pencilled in for Guineas trial starting point

The unbeaten Avicenna is set for an appearance in one of the recognised 2000 Guineas trials, with Roger Varian keen to discover in which direction to head with his exciting Classic hopeful.

Owned by Godolphin, the son of Starspangledbanner saw the form of his Flying Scotsman win franked when Karl Burke’s Doncaster runner-up Hankelow landed the Autumn Stakes before the season was out.

Holding entries for versions of the 2000 Guineas across Europe, Avicenna will head to either the Craven Stakes on home Newmarket soil or take in the Greenham at Newbury before Varian makes a call on his Classic destination.

“We would be right to look forward to him, wouldn’t we? He’s done nothing wrong and his form looks solid,” said Varian.

“He’s just coming to hand nicely now and has had a good winter and provided the next fortnight goes to plan, it’s likely he’ll start in either a Craven or a Greenham and put his credentials on the line.

“He needs a bit more practice and he’s only had the two starts so we need to get a measure of his potential. He’s obviously in the 2000 Guineas at Newmarket, but he’s in a French guineas, he’s in the German guineas and he’s in the Irish as well.

“Hopefully, he’s a Guineas horse of some description, but quite what location we’ve got to find out. He won’t be 100 per cent and he’ll be trained to benefit from a trial, but he should be straight enough to give us a bit of an idea where to shoot.”

Avicenna is currently a best price of 50-1 for the Betfred 2000 Guineas on May 2, but Varian is not hung up about getting some match practice in on the Rowley Mile and will instead let the weather dictate which of the two traditional pathways the colt will take.

He explained: “I don’t have a preference where to go at this stage, but I wouldn’t run this horse on soft ground, I don’t think. I think he got away with a good to soft at Doncaster and I remember William (Buick) saying he didn’t love that ground, but he got away with it.

“I’ve been to Newbury spring trials week before and raced on good to firm ground, and we’ve been there before and raced on heavy ground, so you just have to sort of see what the weather is doing and I’m not going to side with one over the other just at this moment.”