Five things we learnt at Newmarket - Fabre and Godolphin

Jimmy Two Times is one to watch:

Godolphin recently snapped up Jimmy Two Times, and, given the extent of the team’s influence in the Andre Fabre yard, it seemed unlikely the master French trainer would have sold them a dud.

Initially a sprinter who was largely kept away from the highest company, the grey ran respectably in the Prix Maurice de Gheest and Prix de la Foret towards the end of last season. Stepped back up to a mile as an older horse, he seems even more at home and flashed through late on in the Prix du Muguet ay Saint Cloud without Vincent Cheminaud getting too serious.

This race does not have an entirely decorated roll of honour but in 2010 it was used by Fabre for Byword, an unexposed four-year-old who went on to land the Prince Of Wales’s Stakes and this son of Kendargent already looks a major contender for another Royal Ascot’s showpiece, the Queen Anne. Passy Power went 14-1 from 20-1 for the opening race of the royal meeting next month.

Cloth Of Stars continues progress:

The exact same training and ownership line-up claimed the first Group One of the European Flat season as Fabre continues to erase the memory of a quieter than usual 2016 campaign.

Cloth Of Stars has made a rapid start to the year by taking the stepping stones of the Prix Exbury and Harcourt and overcame some trouble in the Prix Ganay to look as if he would make the hat-trick in convincing style approaching the final furlong.

In the end it was almost too close for comfort as Zarak, the colt with almost unparalleled breeding but who has become a touch frustrating, closed the winning margin to a short-neck.

Both have fallen a little short at the highest level to date and while Cloth Of Stars is palpably another Fabre improver, he will have far more on his plate against the likes of Almanzor, Minding, Jack Hobbs and Ulysses in the middle-distance grand slams.

Minding still looks the business:

Aidan O’Brien’s string has not been firing on all cylinders so far this season but the winners are starting to come and Minding’s reappearance could not have been more encouraging.

One only has to look back a year ago to Found, who was not given a hard time when beaten on her comeback, while her natural successor for 2017 made all the running in the Mooresbridge Stakes at Naas and never looked in any danger.

O’Brien was typically cautious about the next step, mentioning both the Lockinge and the Tattersalls Gold Cup, and she will take some beating in either as a five-time Group One winner last season at distances between a mile and a mile and a half.

Ballydoyle’s youngsters ran well on the rest of the card, particularly the once-raced Dali, and those with an interest in their favourites for this weekend’s Guineas, Churchill and Rhododendron, received positive bulletins from their trainer.

Dali was given an opening quote of 16-1 for the Coventry Stakes by Paddy Power.

Bihoue sets pulses racing:

Most top jumpers are now heading off for their summer holidays so it was the perfect opportunity for others to fit in a little match practice.

Paul Nicholls often sends out a novice chaser at the start of a new season and this looked the case with Bagad Bihoue, not seen since the end of October and largely kept under the radar.

The six-year-old is made for fences and gave several of them a huge amount of air, taking the last with such height he came down from orbit with quite a bump. Nicholls might be tempted to keep Bagad Bihoue going for a while more now, but it is easy to envisage him being good enough for when the proper stuff restarts in the autumn.

Hamill the Warwick hero:

Mikey Hamill will have plenty more admirers if he can manage a few more pieces of magic like he produced at Warwick on Monday.

The conditional rider had only reached the first flight of the National Hunt season’s opening race when his mount, Nicely Indeed, got hampered and unbalanced and had his pilot clinging on around the horse’s neck.

Hamill, who reached nine winners during the last campaign, managed to get his feet back in the irons and even got Nicely Indeed home for second place.