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Al Wukair will carry the hopes of France in Saturday’s Group 1 £500,000 QIPCO 2000 Guineas at Newmarket’s Rowley Mile Racecourse – a race that is shaping up to be a Classic cracker.

12 colts were confirmed at today’s penultimate declaration stage for this one mile contest which has racing fans quivering in anticipation for a contest that will kick off the 2017 QIPCO British Champions Series with a real bang.

All the leading protagonists have stood their ground, including, from Ireland, the brilliant Group 1 Dubai Dewhurst Stakes hero, Churchill, and, from Britain, the unbeaten winners of the two main trial races, Eminent and Barney Roy.

Part of the first crop of the outstanding QIPCO 2000 Guineas winner of 2011, Frankel, who is now achieving great things as a stallion too, Eminent was going on particularly strongly at the finish when he landed the Group 3 bet365 Craven Stakes, over the full QIPCO 2000 Guineas Course and distance, on 20th April.

Similarly, Barney Roy produced a stunning late burst to land the Group 3 Greenham Stakes at Newbury on 22nd April, overhauling another Frankel colt still engaged in the QIPCO 2000 Guineas, Dream Castle, in the closing stages en route to a two length triumph.

Al Wukair is trained by the 27-time French Champion, Andre Fabre, and took his own undefeated record to three straight races when registering a stylish one length verdict over the Group 1 scorer, National Defense, in the Group 3 Prix Djebel at Maisons-Laffitte on 10th April.

Fabre has landed the QIPCO 2000 Guineas on two previous occasions, with Zafonic in 1993 and Pennekamp in 1995.

Andre Fabre, trainer of Al Wukair, said:

“Al Wukair did his final piece of work before the QIPCO 2000 Guineas this morning and I was happy with everything.”

“I am quite confident that he will be in the first three on Saturday but I am a bit concerned that he was not a Group 1 winner as a two-year-old, something that most Guineas winners have already achieved, including both of mine [Zafonic and Pennekamp].”

“I gave Al Wukair quite a light two-year-old campaign on purpose as my horses had a little problem with a virus last season, so I did not want to force them.”

“The ground is not a worry for him as he has won on soft and it was on the fast side for the Djebel. He seems well balanced so neither is the undulating] course a major concern – I never have any complaints about Newmarket, which in my opinion is the best racecourse in the world.”

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