Racing: Oasis Dream takes centre stage in the Middle Park

There will be regular reshufflings of the pack before the 2,000 Guineas is played out here on this course next spring and yesterday's jumble saw the names of Oasis Dream and Desert Star rise to the top and Elusive City drop.

The Middle Park Stakes is trumpeted as some sort of barometer for the Guineas, though you have to go back to 1991 and Rodrigo de Triano to find a horse who went on to collect the colts' Classic.

Nevertheless it appeared a Group One race stocked with unusual quality yesterday. Among the contestants were Zafeen, the Mill Reef winner, the Gimcrack victor Country Reel and four challengers from the Ballydoyle stronghold. There was also the promise of Oasis Dream.

Most notable in terms of form and appearance though was the monstrous Elusive City, his face covered in the lines of a white bridle, his snout emphasised by a sheepskin noseband.

Elusive City commanded attention, especially down at the start, a point at which he had misbehaved wildly in recent outings. On this occasion though, he went in like a lamb, which, in hindsight, was an alarm bell. There was no semblance of the destructive energy which had threatened the very fabric of the starting stalls in his successful forays in the Richmond Stakes at Goodwood or the Prix Morny at Deauville. Indeed, throughout he was not the same animal.

After the break, Elusive City was held up one from the back by Kieren Fallon as Irrawaddy led the way with Tomahawk on the outside and Oasis Dream the meat in between. The 6-4 favourite made a brief surge two furlongs out, but there was no conviction in his movement as he zig-zagged across the terrain. "He was a bit keen early on and he didn't handle the Dip," Gerard Butler, the trainer, reported.

Oasis Dream, on the other hand, spread himself close to the ground like a stalking animal and was plainly not discomfited by the Dip. He ran straight, setting a course record. At the line there was a length and half to spare over Tomahawk, with Elusive City a further neck back.

Oasis Dream, who gives Khalid Abdullah a strong Guineas hand as the Saudi prince also owns the ante-post favourite Trade Fair, beat four opponents in a Nottingham maiden on his previous start.

"I don't often fancy my chances, but I was quietly confident of him being quite hard to beat today," John Gosden, the winner's trainer, said. "He's the fastest two-year-old at Manton. He's probably the fastest in Europe over six furlongs.

"But we're lucky to have Al Jadeed as well because he's a very fine horse. He was very brave over a mile the other day [in victory in the Royal Lodge Stakes at Ascot]. The horse that won [at Salisbury] yesterday, Marching Band, is a nice colt as well."

The Unfuwain Maiden Stakes produced another Guineas consideration in Desert Star, who may yet rescue a poor season for the Queen if he returns to his home course for the Dewhurst Stakes in two weeks' time.

Nothing much has gone right for the monarch since the spring, when Right Approach was supposedly going to win the Derby until he started turning up at the racecourse and suggesting otherwise.

Desert Star, a half-brother to the Oaks runner-up Flight Of Fancy, was simply too good for them yesterday. Crown Counsel led the gasping pack behind him, five lengths in arrears. It was the perfect follow-up to an introduction on the Knaves-mire. "He's always worked well but he's mentally been a bit of a baby," Michael Stoute, the trainer, said.

Stoute also confirmed, as much as he can, that Islington would take her place in Sunday's Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe. "We're planning to go unless there is a thunderstorm which would make the ground unsuitable for her," he said. A maximum of 16 runners will now face the Arc starter following yesterday's defection of Nayef and Tau Ceti.