Saeed Bin Suroor hoping for rain to enhance Royal Marine's 2,000 Guineas claims

Saeed Bin Suroor is hoping for some rain to arrive before the weekend to enhance the chances of his Craven Stakes fourth Royal Marine in the Qipco 2,000 Guineas at Newmarket on Saturday.

The son of Raven's Pass, who won the Group 1 Jean-Luc Lagardere at Longchamp last October, showed he handles a softer surface as a juvenile and there is some rain forecast on Thursday for East Anglia, although the potential amount is unclear.

The Godolphin trainer said on Tuesday: "Royal Marine is in good shape and did his final piece of work yesterday. All we need now is some rain for him as he's better with some ease in the ground, as he showed last year."

With several leading contenders ruled out of the first Classic of the season in recent weeks, including long-time ante-post favourite Too Darn Hot, his stablemate Calyx, Greenham winner Mohaather, the Andre Fabre-trained Persian King and fellow Godolphin runner Quorto, Royal Marine is priced as one of the leading British contenders in a market now dominated by Ballydoyle's Magna Grecia and Ten Sovereigns.

Bin Suroor's colt is priced between 6-1 and 9-1 for the 2,000 Guineas, and Bin Suroor is hoping he can build on a respectable fourth behind Skardu in the Craven, where he did not get the smoothest passage.

He added: "He was unlucky in the Craven, when he got boxed in behind a wall of horses. This time he will wear a hood, as he does sometimes at home."

Godolphin's two other contenders for the race are Dark Vision and the unbeaten Al Hilalee, who was supplemented on Monday at a cost of £30,000.

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