IT’S a Classic weekend at the Curragh this weekend, but it’s all about speed at Haydock today, where the Betfred Temple Stakes and the Betfred Nifty Fifty Sandy Lane Stakes take centre stage.

Little Big Bear’s return to six furlongs in the latter contest, the three-year-olds’ race, will be fascinating. You can see why Aidan O’Brien rolled the Guineas dice. Little Big Bear is by No Nay Never, but he is from the family of Arc winner All Along, his dam won twice over 10 furlongs, and his half-brother American Graffiti won three times over 10 furlongs. And Little Big Bear won the Anglesey Stakes over six and a half furlongs like a colt who would get seven at least as a juvenile.

The Guineas experiment was inconclusive in the end. Little Big Bear was keen early on, but he was hampered after two furlongs, and he came home lame. It was just a run that you have to put a line through. It may be that we will see him race over a mile again at some stage in the future.

That said, he has such pace, you have to think that the drop back to six furlongs today will suit him well. Restrained in the Guineas, over the shorter trip today, he can jump and run.

His only defeat last season was on his racecourse debut when he went down by a short head to Tough Talk. After that, he won his maiden over five furlongs, and he won the Windsor Castle Stakes at Royal Ascot, again over five, before winning the Group 3 Anglesey Stakes over six and a half furlongs, before rounding off his season by running out a really impressive winner of the Group 1 Phoenix Stakes at the Curragh in August.

It is not surprising that the market is onto him, but it is a little surprising that Matilda Picotte is as far behind him in the betting as she is.

Kieran Cotter’s filly was a high-class juvenile sprinter last season. Third in the Airlie Stud Stakes and third in the Lowther and second in a Ballyhane Stakes that worked out ridiculously well, she probably put up the best performance of the year on her final run of the season, when she won the Listed Bosra Sham Stakes at Newmarket in October.

Like Little Big Bear, she was tried over longer distances earlier this season. She just didn’t fully get home over seven furlongs on heavy ground at Leopardstown on her return, but she still finished a clear second to Never Ending Story, with subsequent Guineas Trial winner Zarinsk two and a half lengths behind her in third.

Then she took her chance in the 1000 Guineas at Newmarket, and she did remarkably well to keep on as well as she did to finish third. She was quickly into her stride that day, as is her wont. She was over a length clear of the field after they had gone 200 yards and she led the entire field until the two-furlong marker in a race that was run at a fast pace. She couldn’t contain Mawj and Tahiyra, who burst through in the centre and quickly put distance between themselves and the rest of the field, but she kept on admirably on the far side to retain third place, over two lengths ahead of the fourth-placed Caernarfon.

You couldn’t have said that she didn’t stay a mile at Newmarket on that evidence, but she shows so much speed, she is probably better over shorter. Ronan Whelan gets on really well with her, and there is every chance that he will be able to use that speed today from stall one, get out in front from early, and she could last in front all the way to the winning line.

The Platinum Queen has been put in as favourite for the Temple Stakes, and you can understand why. She was a seriously progressive two-year-old last season for Richard Fahey. She finished second behind Highfield Princess in the Nunthorpe and she was only just beaten by Molecomb Stakes winner Trillium in the Flying Childers, before she went to ParisLongchamp and won the Prix de l’Abbaye, the first juvenile to win the Abbaye since 1978.

Sold at the December Sale by Middleham Park Racing for 1.2 million guineas, it is obvious that she could be a really interesting filly this season for Roger Varian, racing in the colours of Japanese owner Katsumi Yoshida.

But she is short today, and she receives no more than 6lb from any of her rivals, as opposed to the 21lb that she received from the older colts and geldings in the Abbaye. That may still be enough, it will be very interesting to see how she goes this season, but Twilight Calls looks over-priced against her.

You have to forgive Henry Candy’s horse for his run in the Palace House Stakes last time, but you easily can. It was his seasonal debut for starters, and the ground was soft, and he raced on the far side from his low draw in a race in which three of the first four home emerged from stalls 12, 13 and 14 of 14.

He won just once last season, but he proved himself to be a high-class sprinter. He was only beaten a head by King’s Lynn in this race last year when he gave first run to the winner and just couldn’t catch him. He probably stepped up on that run too in the King’s Stand Stakes at Royal Ascot, when he beat all except the Australian horse Nature Strip, the highest-rated sprinter in the world.

We know that the Cheveley Park Stud’s horse goes well at the track, and we know that he goes well on fast ground. As long as he can leave his seasonal debut behind him, and there is every chance that he will now, he should run a big race.

Recommended:

1 point win, Matilda Picotte, 3.00 Haydock, 9/1 (generally)

1 point win, Twilight Calls, 3.30 Haydock, 5/1 (generally)