Walker Relishing Guineas Challenge

Ed Walker is excited at the thoughts of his Stormy Antarctic (GB) (Stormy Atlantic) lining up in the G1 QIPCO 2000 Guineas at Newmarket Apr. 30. The colt made a sparkling reappearance when beating Foundation (GB) (Zoffany {Ire}) by three and a half lengths in the G3 Novae Bloodstock Insurance Craven S. at Newmarket last week and Walker thinks the race will set him up perfectly for the Classic in ten days time. “Stormy Antarctic looks fantastic and has tightened up for last week's run. He has come out of it extremely well – I couldn't have asked for the race to have worked out better. On form he was entitled to win it as he had a higher official rating that Foundation, but it was still a hell of a performance,” said Walker.

Such was Stormy Antarctic's dominance on the day when the ground was riding quite soft that assumptions have been made that the horse requires easy ground to show his best; Walker is not convinced. “A lot of people are saying that he is a mudlark but I disagree. Much of his form has come on soft ground but that's just been the way that it's turned out, we haven't gone looking for it – he moves like a fast ground horse and is by an American stallion.” On his only try in Group 1 company Stormy Antarctic was beaten a head by the Aidan O'Brien trained Johannes Vermeer (Ire) (Galileo {Ire}) in the Criterium International at Saint-cloud last November and it will be another Ballydoyle horse that commands most of the pre-race attention in the 2000 Guineas. “The public seem to have the Guineas down as a one horse race, expecting Air Force Blue (War Front) to win it – which takes the pressure off a bit – but we certainly don't see it that way. It's unbelievably exciting and I'm just praying that everything goes smoothly between now and race day,” added the trainer who will be relocating from Newmarket to Lambourn for next season.