THE various performances from this week’s Guineas, Derby and Oaks trials – at Newmarket, Newbury, and perhaps even elsewhere – will be covered in next week’s Time Will Tellcolumn. But there were some meaningful pre-classic skirmishes before then, not least at Leopardstown on Sunday.

The four-runner listed 2000 Guineas Trial looks a weak contest, especially in terms of time, with the winner Black Sea registering a timefigure of just 82. As an indication of what might be required in a Newmarket 2000 Guineas outright, the average rating of winners on the day in the last five years has been 128, while Air Force Blue has already achieved a 121 timefigure.

A win in the 1000 Guineas at Newmarket is more easily achieved, with the five-year average being 117, which happens to be the timefigure earned by Minding when winning the Fillies’ Mile at Newmarket last October.

Jet Setting got closer to that level when posting a 106 in winning the 1000 Guineas Trial at Leopardstown by three lengths from Now Or Never (97 timefigure). That suggests the former was not much flattered by making all, though it has to be wondered what third-placed Alice Springs (previous best timefigure of 107) would have done kept closer in touch.

The Derby at Epsom has required a rating of 125 on average to prevail in recent years, and the Ballysax Stakes winner Harzand still has some way to go to reach that level, having put up a 105 timefigure here in running down Idaho (103).

However, overall times are a product of pace as well as other things, and there is good reason to think that the pair will rate into at least the 110s on another occasion, as they both ran the last two furlongs in under 27 seconds on a day when heavy going should have made that pretty difficult.Whether Harzand will prove as effective on less testing ground remains to be seen, but Idaho was an eye-catching debut winner on good and certainly looks a player in the remaining trials if not in the big race itself.

Leopardstown also held a meeting on the Wednesday, when there were no big races but the Aidan O’Brien-trained Claudio Monteverdi impressed in winning the opening maiden.

A timefigure of 96 is conservative and assumes the already heavy surface deteriorated significantly thereafter. Be that as it may, Claudio Monteverdi ran a sharp 26.20s for the last two furlongs and should be up to making an impact in listed company at least.