Confucius

Whatever the week ahead at Royal Ascot brings, there is one certainty and that is Aidan O'Brien stretching what's possible even further from the centre. Let's get this out of the way first; the current master of Ballydoyle will undeniably form his own one-man club at some point over the next five days with his 100th Royal winner. It is a club so exclusive that it will likely see no other member for decades, with the County Wexford-born nonpareil still a relative youth in the training ranks. Ironically, his shortest-priced...

There's a change to the usual format this week as we focus on the crème de la crème of the two-year-olds, looking forward to some significant clashes in store at Royal Ascot next week. Timeform's highest-rated juvenile heading into Royal Ascot is the unbeaten G3 Marble Hill Stakes hero Great Barrier Reef (No Nay Never), who appears to have everything that you could wish to find in a potential two-year-old winner at this meeting. For a start, Great Barrier Reef is by No Nay Never, the most prolific sire of...

The Timeform rankings return to highlight the top-rated maiden/novice winners in Britain and Ireland from the last fortnight, with a Richard Hannon-trained colt from York's Dante Festival leading the way.  =3. BARROW BOY (IRE) Bayside Boy (Ire) - Illumined (Ire), by Sea The Moon (Ger) Timeform performance rating: 92 Trained by Gavin Cromwell, Barrow Boy was a dominant winner of the near-6f maiden run at Navan on May 16, fully confirming the promise of last month's debut when he chased home Tribeca (Blue Point) over the same course and distance....

2.35 Naas, Mdn, 2yo, 5f 205yT CONFUCIUS (IRE) (No Nay Never) looked unlucky not to get off the mark on debut at the Curragh last month and is Ballydoyle's pick to represent the stable in the maiden won 12 months ago by Albert Einstein. The son of the Cheveley Park Stakes heroine Millisle (Starspangledbanner) cost 1.7 million gns at Tattersalls October Book 1 and should have too many guns for his peers which include the Moyglare homebred Luca Brillante (Ire) (No Nay Never), a Dermot Weld-trained son of the Group...

7th-LRC, $45K, Msw, 3yo/up, 6 1/2f, 7:05 p.m. Trainer John Sadler debuts LEVON (Practical Joke) for Talla Racing and Central Dispatch (Arrogate) for Hronis Racing. The stablemates both worked a bullet five furlongs from the gate in :59 1/5 (1/12) at Los Alamitos June 10. The former is a $750,000 KEESEP buy whose dam Gal Factor (The Factor) counts GI Arkansas Derby hero Super Stock (Dialed In) as a half brother. Trainer Bob Baffert will saddle first-time starter Confucius (Candy Ride {Arg}) whose dam Mumtaazah (Tapit) is a half-sister to...