Whether the Classic picture is any clearer this week than last is debatable but what the last seven days have brought us is some truly impressive performances to savour. And it is hard to pick just one, though it has to be said that Portcullis's Wood Ditton run was visually the most spectacular for all that you could see the colt learning with every stride he took, from being left at the start, to bounding through then clear of his rivals. His maiden success for the King and Queen played its part in a memorable week for his sire Frankel, when several of his three-year-olds stepped forward to pick up important group wins and Damysus returned victorious in the G3 Earl of Sefton Stakes to book his slot in Wathnan Racing's team for Royal Ascot. “I think anything from a mile to a mile and a quarter is what James [Doyle] felt,” said Damysus's co-trainer John Gosden, who hinted that the four-year-old could end up meeting stable-mate Ombudsman (Night Of Thunder) at the royal meeting. “We'll watch the ground and look at the races – Group Threes, Group Twos and then look at the Group Ones. I wouldn't be frightened of looking at something like the Prix d'Ispahan and then you get Royal Ascot and you have a race like the Prince of Wales's.”With Portcullis and Damysus having already demonstrated the good form of the Gosden stable, Prince AA Faisal's Oxagon then stepped up to the plate in the G3 Betway Craven Stakes, coming home best of a field which was reduced in size by the late withdrawals of Hawk Mountain (Wootton Bassett) and Hankelow (Night Of Thunder).Frankel's third Group 3 winner of the week came at Saint-Cloud courtesy of Juddmonte's swiftly progressive Gilded Prize. Named a TDN Rising Star in xxx, she is now unbeaten in three starts after her decisive victory in the Henri Matisse Coolmore Prix Cleopatre and has shot to co-favouritism with Diamond Necklace (St Mark's Basilica) for the G1 Prix de Diane.Azleet Puts Williams in the Classic PictureWith the 20th anniversary approaching of Speciosa's 1,000 Guineas victory, the result of the Lanwades Stud Nell Gwyn Stakes gave rise to the hope that another smaller stable could capture the fillies' prize back on the Rowley Mile on May 3. Azleet (Tasleet) may have been sent off at 50/1 but that proved no barrier to her becoming the longest-priced winner of the race in its 65-year history as she stuck to her guns under Marco Ghiani to give Stuart Williams his first win in the Classic trial. Since Speciosa's day, only one filly has gone on from the Nell Gwyn to win the 1,000 Guineas and that was Cachet, who was trained on Newmarket's Hamilton Road by George Boughey just a few yards along from Williams's Diomed Stables.Former trainer Mark Tompkins, who also bred the 2024 Irish Oaks winner You Got To Me (Nathaniel), is involved in Azleet as co-owner and -breeder with Scottish-based David Noblett and he was full of praise for the work of Williams and his team, particularly as the filly is reportedly not the most straightforward individual.“I pride myself in doing the best we can with the horses we've got and if there's a race to be won with a horse then we'll win it,” Williams said. “But to be here on days like this – we don't get the chance to train these horses very often and to have one that's good enough to win here over this track is brilliant.”A Galaxy of StarsFrom Newmarket to Newbury the eye-catching action came thick and fast last week, and nobody was busier than the fearsome judges who make up the Rising Stars panel. Tom Frary and Sean Cronin had to keep their wits about them on Friday afternoon as maiden winner after promising winner romped across the Berkshire turf to be awarded the TDN version of a 'Ten from Len'.TBT Racing's Synchronicity (Night Of Thunder), the 900,000gns sister to Ombudsman, looked as though she still has plenty of physical development to come, which made her two-length win in the Bridget Confined Maiden Fillies Stakes for Ed Walker all the more noteworthy. A big tick and a Rising Star for her and on we went to I'm The One (Sea The Stars), who some people are already thinking of as the 2026 Betfred Oaks winner. They may well be right, and she's certainly bred to be: by a Derby winner out of a mare, Sunny Queen, by another Derby winner in Camelot, and who just happens to haven beaten the Arc winner Torquator Tasso in the G1 Prosser Preis von Bayern. Let's call that two ticks, plus another for her six-length victory in the Dreweatts Maiden Fillies Stakes.The third consecutive TDN Rising Star of Newbury's Friday card was awarded to Maltese Cross, who is bred on the same Sea The Stars-Camelot cross as I'm The One, and he looked like the one as well when holding off My Love Is King (Kingman) in the Darley EBF Novice Stakes. That was Maltese Cross's second win in the colours of George Waud, also known as Mr Charlotte Tilbury. A Derby trial at Chester or Lingfield is next for the William Haggas-trained colt, who gets extra ticks for his dam Nabatea being a half-sister to German Derby winner Nutan and German Oaks runner-up Nymphea, who later won the Grosser Preis von Berlin.Haggas had also unleashed another potential Derby colt at the Rowley Mile earlier in the week when Morshdi (Dubawi), a brother to the G2 Park Hill Fillies' Stakes winner Nakheel, landed the Listed Feilden Stakes on his seasonal debut for owner-breeder Sheikh Ahmed Al Maktoum. It is 30 years since Shaamit struck at Epsom for Haggas and it is good to see his Somerville Lodge stable with a couple of potential Derby prospects this season. The Fred Darley to West Ilsley – AgainJack Channon's entourage at Newbury on Saturday included not just his father but also Mick's great running mate and fellow former trainer David Elsworth. Jack would have had his work cut out keeping those two in line, not to mention the somewhat temperamental Sukanya (Havana Grey), who won the G3 Fred Darling Stakes.Channon credits his wife Allana for channelling the exuberance of Sukanya, who is not averse to taking the odd chunk out of those within striking distance. Her victory in Newbury's fillies' Classic trial continued a good run for West Ilsley, with Mick Channon having saddled five Fred Darling winners – Queen's Logic (2002), Majestic Desert (2004), Majestic Roi (2007), Lahaleeb (2009) and Dan's Dream (2018).“I think [Sukanya] has given her a few black eyes and I've had to answer to her mum a few times,” the trainer said. “Allana is an amazing horsewoman and I couldn't do what I do without her.”Channon is now pondering whether or not to send Sukanya, who races in the colours of Opulence Thoroughbreds, to the Irish 1,000 Guineas or supplement for Newmarket. He has already won this year's Lincoln with Urban Lion (Zoustar), and its consolation race, the Spring Mile, with Mezcala (Expert Eye), and the latter's half-brother Rathgar (Ulysses) sealed a good day for his stable at Newbury when winning the closing Dubai Duty Free Millennium Millionaire Handicap.Alparslan Just Dandy for Al ShehhiIt is more than two years since Ballyhane Stud's stalwart Dandy Man died but it looks as though he will have a posthumous last hurrah through his son Alparslan, who held off the two favourites Zavateri (Without Parole) and Albert Einstein (Wootton Bassett) in the G3 Watership Down Stud Too Darn Hot Greenham Stakes.Alparslan's trainer Karl Burke and owner Mohammed Al Shehhi now have a decision to make as to which version of the 2,000 Guineas the colt will contest. “It's a discussion we've got to have,” Burke said. “As Federico Barberini, who bought him and represents Mohammed Al Shehhi, said, you know, we've got all the right horses right on our tails. A mile would be a question mark, but he wasn't stopping there, was he?“He's in all of them – the French, the Irish. He's never raced around a bend and Cliff [Lee, jockey] just said that he's not sure a bend would suit him. Theoretically, we've got time to go to the English Guineas and Irish guineas.” Karl Burke with sponsor Madeleine Lloyd Webber, Clifford Lee and Federico Barberini after the Greenham | Emma Berry A delighted Barberini recalled seeing Alparslan for the first time at the Tattersalls Ireland September Yearling Sale. “He was such a good-looking yearling and we weren't going to leave without him,” he said. “Mr Al Shehhi has been lucky before with Dandy Man as he's also had Arabie.”Also trained by Burke and bought by Barberini, Arabie won the G2 Prix Robert Papin and G3 Prix du Bois in 2024.A budding Classic prospect would probably have been enough to make Burke's day but less than half an hour later his afternoon improved significantly when Convergent, who ran into all kinds of trouble in the G3 John Porter Stakes but still had enough class to win going away once clear, booked his ticket for some big summer contests, including the £1m Coolmore Coronation Cup on Derby day and the King George VI and Queen Elizabeth Stakes. “I'd say the Coronation is high on the list,” Burke noted. “Whether he handles Epsom, we'll find out. He'll have entries in all those races. I think he's a mile-and-a-half horse with a good turn of foot. At that level, they're hard to come by, aren't they?”Convergent races for his breeder Maurice Regan's Newtown Anner Stud, who also bred and raced his sire Fascinating Rock – now resident at Burgage Stud having started his stallion career at Ballylinch – and his dam Monty's Miracle (Shamardal). Runner-up in last year's G1 Deutsches Derby, Convergent is in the right hands to be considered a Group 1 winner in waiting. Excitement to FollowWe may not be able to look forward to Epsom's Blue Riband Trial this Tuesday (the meeting has been postponed for a week owing to a faulty irrigation system), but there is plenty to look forward to at Sandown on Friday, with Baaeed's brother Raaheeb (Sea The Stars) and Benvenuto Cellini (Frankel) among those entered for the Bet 365 Classic Trial. The race just prior to that, the G2 Bet365 Mile, has an eye-popping list of potential runners which include Field Of Gold (Kingman), Zeus Olympios (Night Of Thunder) and Never So Brave (No Nay Never) – a Group 1 in all but name.Then of course there is an unusually strong international cast being assembled in Hong Kong for Sha Tin's FWD Champions Day on Sunday, with Japan Cup runner-up Masquerade Ball set to meet Romantic Warrior, Sosie and Royal Champion in the QEII Cup, while Docklands will face Jantar Mantar and defending champion Red Lion in the Champions Mile and Satono Reve meets Ka Ying Rising in the Chairman's Sprint Prize. The post Seven Days: Spring Trials Delivering in Style appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.