From 33-1 to 7-4: Santa Barbara is a strange but fascinating Guineas gamble

Walking around an Epsom racecourse white with snow last Monday, it was beginning to look a lot like Christmas. With the Guineas trials behind us, it's beginning to look a lot like the Flat season has found its stride. Just like the weather, the Guineas themselves are most confusing.

The Newmarket Classics are punting puzzles that should always make us think, yet the peak of the two markets feel unusually peculiar this year. The identity of the current favourites and their odds are certainly not what one would have expected when our attention switched to the jumpers last winter.

Stranger than anything is the fact Santa Barbara so completely dominates the betting for the Qipco 1,000 Guineas.