THE great unwashed who care little for horseracing have been known to observe that “it is just a bunch of horses running around a field.” We should feel sorry for them, perhaps, for, at its best, the sport is a deliciously nuanced one in which potential vies with achievement and supreme athletic ability meets head-on with split-second decision-making.

As showcases go, last Saturday’s QIPCO 2000 Guineas at Newmarket was one of the best imaginable. All the main contenders had achieved plenty, but potential was represented more by Barney Roy, Al Wukair and Eminent, while achievement was represented more by Churchill.

Achievement won out, but in such a tactical environment that it can be reasonably wondered if the result would have been different under other circumstances.

Without disappointing other than perhaps a few pocket-talkers, this year’s 2000 Guineas provided not so much an answer as a number of intriguingly different questions that will hopefully be addressed on racecourses in the months ahead.

The race will be remembered as much as anything for being one which Coolmore got it right and Godolphin got it wrong. It was clear from an early stage that there was not much of a gallop on, but the Godolphin trio of Barney Roy, Dream Castle and Top Score were held up with seemingly no contingency having been made for such an eventuality.

Meanwhile, Coolmore’s main hope Churchill was close up tracking his stable companion Lancaster Bomber. We knew from his efforts at two that Churchill is not slow, and when a gap conveniently appeared just as things were heating up at the three-furlong pole he was through it while others were struggling to get into gear.

At the line, Churchill was a length to the good over Barney Roy, who had sprawled going into the Dip, with a neck back to Al Wukair, who had started his run from even further back. Sectionals showed that the runners had been around 10 lengths behind par in the first half of the race: off the pace is not where you wanted to be.

In those circumstances, the overall time of the 2000 Guineas is surprisingly decent. Timeform has timefigures of 117, 115 and 114 on the first three home. Those aforementioned sectionals indicate that all the principals deserve marking up quite a bit, with Al Wukair – who was fastest from three furlongs out in 34.26s – worth marking up the most. Sectionals alone suggest that Al Wukair “should” have won, but sectionals alone do not allow for the fact that Churchill seems to do just enough when in front, nor that Barney Roy was all at sea at one stage.

There is only one way to settle it, which is to have a rematch. That is likely to happen only if Churchill remains at a mile. His performance was that of a miler to my eyes, but he does settle so well that staying further remains a possibility.

One other thing the overall time and those fast sectionals point to is that there is a chance that all three of Churchill, Barney Roy and Al Wukair are high class and will prove it in the months to come.