Horse racing: Say Hooray for Prescott as he's the best bet to repel the French invaders

There is a theory that a bad winter means the three-year-olds never really get going until late summer, and that may mean today's Qipco 1,000 Guineas at Newmarket heading the way of France.

Certainly, most of the local trainers are less than bullish about their chances, and the lack of a run on turf this season for nine of the 19 runners says it all.

Given the lack of fanfares for their fillies from the Ballydoyle stable of Aidan O'Brien, the initiative lies with France and all three of the Gallic entries have had a run this season. Midnight Cloud, trained by Freddie Head and ridden by Davy Bonilla, has the best form and is set to go off favourite this afternoon after an easy win in her latest outing, the Prix Impudence.

Rod Collet's Nova Hawk is good each-way value but has only won on soft ground and it could be on the firmish side of good today.

O'Brien's son Joseph has his first ride in a British Classic on board Empowering, owned by his mother, but the experienced Pat Smullen is aboard the stable's Misty For Me and that daughter of Galileo should perform well before going for the Oaks.

Last year's Cherry Hinton winner Memory, from the Richard Hannon stable, is probably the best home hope, while Sir Michael Stoute's fillies are always to be respected, Havant being the better of his two. But, if there is a man in Newmarket who can prepare a horse to win a race, it is Sir Mark Prescott.

His handicap coups are legendary, with horses trained for months to win particular races, and the word is he may be doing the same with last year's champion two-year-old filly Hooray. She won the Lowther and the Group 1 Cheveley Park Stakes last season and, if she has trained on, she will be remarkably good each-way value.