World Rankings Team Hail This Year's Classic Crop

The people who are paid to be dispassionate about racing yesterday confirmed what many punters had already worked out for themselves: that the two-year-olds of 2007 were an unusually good bunch, and that the Classic season that begins in early May should be one to cherish.

New Approach, the Dewhurst Stakes winner, was the best of them with an outstanding rating of 126 in the World Thoroughbred Rankings released yesterday, but five juvenile colts earned a rating of 120 or higher in the official classification, for the first time since Matthew Tester, the handicapper in charge, took on the job a dozen years ago. The quality of the last crop of two-year-olds seems to be confirmed by the fact that Kingsgate Native, who won an all-aged Group One when he ran away with the Nunthorpe at York in June, is only joint-seventh on the list, just behind the top-rated filly, the French-trained Zarkava.

January is far too early to talk of a golden generation. If colts like Fast Company, Myboycharlie, Raven's Pass and Rio De La Plata manage to join New Approach at New market for the 2,000 Guineas on May 3, however, the 200th renewal of the race could also be one of the finest.

You need look back only to last year, of course, to realize how uncertain the passage from juvenile year to Classic campaign can be. New Approach is Jim Bolger's second champion two-year-old colt in as many years, and the last one, Teofilo - who was rated 123 - retired to stud without running another race.

New Approach is currently top-priced at 11-4 for the Guineas, and at 4-1 for the Derby at Epsom in June. Tester suggested yesterday, however, that while his talent is beyond doubt, his attitude may prove to be a significant weakness.

"I think he is a great credit to his trainer's ability," Tester said, "as in lesser hands I think he would never have achieved what he has already. I think his trainer has had to deal with issues other than getting the horse fit and sending it to the track. I have a lot of faith in his ability to continue handling the horse and hope it is never an issue, but there were what you might call George Washington tendencies that I saw there as a two-year-old. New Approach is definitely not straightforward and I think Mr Bolger is going to need all his skills."

A striking feature of the two-year-old ratings was the absence of an Aidan O'Brien-trained colt anywhere near the top of the list. This is not a great surprise given the promotion of middle-distance champions Montjeu and Galileo to the front rank of the Coolmore Stud operation, but none the less, the most satisfied man in world racing this morning may well be Sheik Mohammed.

The Sheikh's Godolphin operation has several of the top two-year-olds, and he also dominates the remainder of the classifications with horses now standing at his studs. Authorized, the Derby winner, retires to the Sheikh's Dalham Hall Stud as the top-rated three-year-old colt with a mark of 129, which has been bettered only by Sinndar in the last decade.

"The Derby was a cracking race this year," Phil Smith, Britain's senior handicapper said. "It was amazing how horses kept coming out of it and winning, and Authorized's International Stakes at York was a high-quality race as well. The top four turf performances of the year were all in British races, the Derby, the King George, the Prince of Wales' Stakes and the International, and I can't imagine that has happened too many times before."

Manduro, another recruit to Sheik Mohammed's studs, put up the best performance of the season at Royal Ascot in June, when beating Dylan Thomas, the subsequent King George and Arc winner, in the Prince of Wales' Stakes.

It was a strong year for fillies too, with Rags To Riches becoming the first to win the Belmont Stakes, the last leg of the US Triple Crown, since 1905, and Peeping Fawn carrying all before her in Europe. Darjina too recorded an excellent rating of 122 after beating Godolphin's Ramonti in the Prix du Moulin.

"All three of these exceptional three-year-old fillies will stay in training," Garry O'Gorman, Ireland's senior handicapper, said. "If they can stay sound and train on, there must be every hope that they can go on again."

Ron Cox's tip of the day

Banoge 1.30 Newcastle

Stamina is Banoge's strong suit, and Len Lungo's six-year-old has jumped well on both his outings over hurdles to date. He was not helped by the drop back to two and a half miles at Ayr last time, but finished a long way clear of the remainder in occupying third spot behind a couple of decent sorts in Quws Law and Viking Rebel. A repeat of that form should suffice here for the selection.