Karl Burke appears adamant his filly Fallen Angel is the one to beat as 20 horses stood their ground at the latest confirmation stage for the 1000 Guineas on Monday afternoon.
The daughter of Too Darn Hot suffered defeat just once as a juvenile and rounded off her two-year-old campaign with a sparkling Group 1 success in the Moyglare Stud Stakes at the Curragh in September.
Although Burke was by no means adverse to running his stable star in a trial heading into Newmarket, owner-breeder Steve Parkin was sweeter on the idea of heading straight to the prestigious Classic on the Rowley Mile and instead Fallen Angel took part in a racecourse gallop at Newmarket's Craven meeting.
"Fallen Angel looks in great shape. She needed that gallop at the Craven meeting and came out of that really well and took a big step forward," said Burke, who will be looking for a first British Classic triumph having saddled Laurens to fill the runner-up spot in the 1000 Guineas in 2018.
He added: "Fitness-wise she needed to have a good racecourse gallop and that will have brought her on and it will just sharpen her mind a little bit as well. They go up and down the same gallops here in Middleham all winter and it's good to get them away and concentrate their minds, I suppose.
"She had four runs last year and travelled to Ireland and she travels well, but a racecourse gallop just puts their game day head on I suppose and definitely brings them forward.
"She did a good piece of work on Friday, she'll have a little blowout tomorrow (Tuesday) and that'll just about be her really, we're very happy with her."
The Karl Burke-trained grey heads the market as a general 3/1 shot for the first fillies' Classic of the season, with Ylang Ylang, who finished well behind her in the Moyglare Stud Stakes, a 4/1 chance and Dance Sequence, who lost her unbeaten record when narrowly denied in the Nell Gwynn Stakes, 5/1 for Charlie Appleby and team Godolphin.
Whilst there may be little between those at the top of the market for Sunday's 1000 Guineas, Burke firmly believes his horse arrives at Newmarket with the best form in the book. "I think they've got us to beat, I really do," said the confident-looking Spigot Lodge handler.
"The formbook says they have, I know Ballydoyle will give you plenty of excuses for Ylang Ylang's defeat in the Moyglare, but she's got nine or 10 lengths to make up on us.
"Obviously Charlie's filly got beat the other day and that form doesn't look strong enough to win a Guineas. I'm sure Charlie's horse will improve, but on all known form I think we deserve to be favourite.
"Fallen Angel is very versatile ground-wise, anything from soft to good to firm would suit – I think the ground will be perfect whatever it is."
Fallen Angel could be joined by stablemate Darnation, who landed the Group 2 May Hill Stakes at Doncaster last season but with the prospect of decent ground at Newmarket this weekend likely, the Spigot Lodge-based trainer may look to France to reintroduce his talented filly.
"She's a very good filly on soft and heavy ground, there's no doubt about that, she proved that last season," he said.
"It was very much up in the air whether we'd leave her in this morning. I spoke to connections, and they were keen to leave her in and see what the weather does.
"She had a racecourse gallop after racing at Wetherby on Sunday on heavy ground and galloped very well. She's fit and ready to go, the favourite would be to wait until the French Guineas, but we'll just play it by ear and see what happens Thursday morning with the ground.
"As we know, Newmarket can dry up very quickly and I don't want to waste a run with her."
