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Trainer confident of Rubick colt’s ability at Guineas trip.
Jacquinot will not be the first Golden Rose winner who looked like he'd run a 'mile' to be beaten in the Australian Guineas if he is found out by the 1600 metres of Saturday's $1 million Group 1.
Denman, the 2009 Golden Rose champion, finished fourth at $1.60 in the 2010 Australian Guineas, having also been unplaced as favourite in the Caulfield Guineas earlier in the season, with the performance confirmation that 1600m was just a little too far for the son of Lonhro.
Given Jacquinot is by Rubick (Encosta De Lago), the distance of Saturday's race at Flemington is a niggle for those against the dual 1400m Group 1 winner.
But co-trainer Michael Kent is adamant it will not be an issue, taking confidence from a female line that has produced a Group 1 Guineas winner in Australia and a Group 2 winner over 2100m across the Tasman.
"I have no doubts," Kent, who trains in partnership with Mick Price, told RSN927 when asked of Jacquinot's credentials at 1600m.
"Yeah, he's by Rubick, but he's out of a Pierro mare from a stout, Classic-type dam line.
"The likes of Inference and Illation are there all in his dam line and I think he's the classiest horse in the race."
While by Rubick, a son of Encosta De Lago who failed to place in three starts at 1200m and is yet to produce a Group winner beyond 1400m, Jacquinot is out of Ponterro, an unraced daughter of Pierro.
Ponterro is a daughter of the Redoute's Choice mare Pontiana, whose first foal Inference (So You Think) won a Group 1 Randwick Guineas (1600m), having earlier been a luckless third placegetter in the Group 1 Victoria Derby (2500m).
Fourth foal Dragon Leap, a brother to Ponterro, won an Auckland Guineas (1600m) and Avondale Guineas (2100m) at Group 2 level in New Zealand and was fourth in the Group 1 New Zealand Derby (2400m).
Fifth foal Montia (Vancouver) also won over 1600m, albeit at Ballarat in a Class 1, while Inference's brother Illation brilliantly won the Listed Adelaide Guineas (1600m) last year.
Two-year-old I Am Invincible colt Illative, who is Pontiana's youngest foal having slipped to Pierro and missed to I Am Invincible in 2020 and 2021, makes his debut in the 1000m Listed 2YO event that kicks off Saturday's Guineas Day card.
Jacquinot, who is coming off a protest win in the Group 1 C F Orr Stakes (1400m) at weight-for-age, will underline his standing as the best-performed colt of his generation if he is to win the Guineas, creating a slice of history in the process.
Denman is one of only two winners of the Golden Rose since it was upgraded to Group 1 who have contested Flemington's Guineas, followed by Ole Kirk – who ran 10th in 2021 – while no three-year-old has won the Guineas after claiming the C F Orr Stakes.
Jacquinot, who will be ridden by Damian Lane, has drawn barrier 11 in what is a full Guineas field of 16 runners.
