Kempton: Il Warrd shows a clean set of hooves to raise Guineas hopes

Think of how painful a split fingernail is and you will realise the discomfort under which Il Warrd was operating for most of last year. The big brown colt suffered from the equine equivalent, quarter cracks, and won just one of his three races. But now he has four unblemished hooves, and yesterday at Kempton showed what he can really do.

The son of Pivotal, highly enough regarded to hold 2,000 Guineas and Dante Stakes entries, outclassed his rivals in the Easter Stakes, producing an eyecatching change of gear as he powered away from Gaspar Van Wittel and the favourite, Latin Lad, in the straight to win by four-and-a-half lengths.

Il Warrd had disappointed when only sixth behind the subsequent Group One winner Rio De La Plata at Goodwood on his final run last year, and drifted in the market on his reappearance from 9-2 to 13-2 despite looking in fine fettle. Martin Dwyer had him in the van throughout, and after the race both horse and rider looked understandably chuffed with a job well done.

"I was really pleased with that," said Dwyer, "and the way he quickened. We've always thought a lot of him, but he wasn't well at Goodwood."

The Easter Stakes is the first of the Classic trials over the next eight days, and the least of them; just two recent winners have reached the frame in the Guineas, runners-up Rebel Rebel three years ago and Lucky Lindy in 1992.

Il Warrd was cut yesterday from a no-hoper at 66-1 to a lively outsider at 33-1. His trainer,Marcus Tregoning, ruled a trip to the Rowley Mile next month neither in nor out for Sheikh Ahmed's colour-bearer. He said: "We'll have to think about it now, but we'll have to see what happens in the rest of the trials.

"I think that looked a pretty good race for its level. He's been going well at home this spring – we've got on top of his foot problem, I hope – and he's really come to himself in the past few days. He's grown quite a bit and I fancy he'll get further than the mile."

The filly equivalent race, the Masaka Stakes, will have no impact on the 1,000 Guineas as the winner, Jazz Jam, who scored by a determined half-length under Richard Quinn, is not entered. The Italian equivalent at San Siro next month is a possibility for Faisal Salman's home-bred daughter of Pivotal, who continued her trainer Paul Cole's excellent start to the season. She was his seventh winner from 14 runners in the past two weeks.

Sir Michael Stoute struck for the first time in the new campaign at the second time of askingwhen Heaven Sent became another to increase her paddock value with a Listed win. The five-year-old, who took the Kempton opener by an easy two-and-a-quarter lengths, is owned by Cheveley Park Stud and is yet another by the Newmarket estab-lishment's star stallion Pivotal.

At Doncaster, Peter Chapple-Hyam notched a one-two in the feature Doncaster Mile, but in the wrong order according to the betting, as 9-2 shot Medicine Path and Jamie Spencer led home the warm 6-4 favourite Don't Panic and Alan Munro. "I hate running two in the same race," said the trainer.