Newmarket tips: Best bets and odds for Friday's race card as the Guineas Festival 2023 kicks off

“They never come back.” A common write-off and aimed at horses as well as human athletes that have lost their way.

But it’s a glib phrase. Yes, often they don’t come back, can’t come back, never recover properly from their dips in health or motivation.

But sometimes they do and when that happens, it’s glorious, one of the beauties of any sport.

The question at Newmarket this week is: can Hurricane Lane come back?

Hurricane Lane wasn’t quite a champion three-year-old in 2021, but he did win two classics and finish third in both the Epsom Derby and the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe. He was top class by any measure.

But the Charlie Appleby-trained son of Frankel has had just three runs since and performed poorly each time, his most recent effort – stone last in a minor Newbury Group race last month – being the saddest, a hurricane very much in the doldrums.

Is that it? Or can Appleby, who isn’t firing on as many cylinders as he was at Newmarket’s Craven meeting just a few weeks ago, rekindle the old spark in this afternoon’s Jockey Club Stakes, the only noticeable difference from his last tame showing being the first-time fitting of headgear?

It has the feel of a last throw of the dice and if Hurricane Lane doesn’t land on a six or a five, he won’t win this Group Two.

Appleby sounds just hopeful, rather than confident, explaining: “He was disappointing at Newbury, but the ground was very testing, he was racing on the back of a long lay-off, and he got very tired in the last couple of furlongs.

“From what we have seen at home, he has come out of the race very well and we’re applying cheekpieces to hopefully encourage some more enthusiasm.”

Appleby believes he has solid back-up in Global Storm, but the biggest threat to Hurricane Lane may come from West Wind Blows. He finished down the field in last year’s Derby and, as his name might imply, is not anything like the same force as his Godolphin rival was in his prime.

But Simon and Ed Crisford’s colt has developed into a fair tool, good enough to take full advantage of another blow-out from his much-decorated opponent.

Newmarket tips for Friday

• 1.15pm Circle Of Fire (Best Bet) 7-1: Big step up in class, but has the scope to make his mark in this company.

• 3pm Final Watch (Next Best) 4-1: Encouraging comeback effort here last month. This faster ground should help.

Circle Of Fire, Relentless Voyager and Salt Bay have been rerouted to Newmarket for a classic trial following the abandonment of Sandown’s card last Friday.

Salt Bay boasts the strongest form after finishing third in a French Group One last autumn, but now faces fellow Derby entries with the potential to show at least as much.

They include the easy Salisbury winner Circle Of Fire, owned by the King and Queen Consort and trained by Sir Michael Stoute, who won last year’s Derby with another slow-burner, Desert Crown.