GODOLPHIN struck the first blow of the year in the European classics when Notable Speech ran out an impressive winner of Saturday's 2000 Guineas at Newmarket.

Trained by Charlie Appleby and ridden by William Buick, Notable Speech went off at 16/1 as the market was dominated by Aidan O'Brien's undefeated City Of Troy (4/6).

The favourite led through the early stages but could not shake off his field and found disappointingly little as the Richard Hannon-trained pair of Rosallion and Haatem headed him three furlongs out.

Meanwhile, Notable Speech was held up towards the rear before unleashing a powerful turn of foot to lead over a furlong out. He maintained a two-length lead over Rosallion right to the line. Haatem was third and Ghostwriter was fourth.

By Dubawi and bred by Godolphin, Notable Speech did not race at two and only made his debut at the end of January. He has won all three of his starts on Kempton's all-weather track and this was his turf debut.

William Buick said: "I've not often had as much belief in a horse as I have in this guy. He does things so easily, his change of gear is incredible. I have gone close in this race a few times so I am delighted to have won it."

Charlie Appleby added: "You don't see many come off the all-weather to a Guineas success but he was far too weak to run as a two-year-old. What he did on his last start had a bit of a wow factor and we were thinking of the French Guineas for him.

"We waited until after the Craven to see how the Guineas was shaping up. We brought him here for a racecourse gallop and what he did that morning was exciting.

“Paul Eddery sat on him the other day. He’s 60 years of age but he’s sat on enough good horses. He’s only ridden him the last week because Aidan’s in America and he got off him and said he stays a mile and the favourite will have to be good to beat him. From that moment on, I’ve just been trying to keep a lid on it.

Richard Hannon, trainer of the second Rosallion and third Haatem said: “I am delighted. They are two extremely good horses who have made me proud, everyone in the yard proud and their owners proud. That is what we are here to do.

“They have come up against a very good horse and we will take him on again – there are many good days to be had with these two horses through the year and I am looking forward to it.

“I am disappointed not to win but that’s life. I’ll look back in half an hour and think it’s been a good day but it does hurt right now. As a trainer you have to do disappointment for a living.

“Rosallion travelled so well and he got to the front and looked like he was going to win. I don’t think he needed it – he hasn’t blown up as he has done loads of work. He’s still an extremely good horse and I’d love to take the winner on again around a bend at Royal Ascot in the St James’s Palace Stakes and we’ll also look at going to Ireland.

“I think this is probably the best Guineas we have seen in 10 years.”

Asked if City Of Troy’s performance was “almost too bad to be true”, Aidan O’Brien said: “There’s no doubt about that. He wasn’t overblown so we’ll have to take him home and see.”

When asked if he was shocked by the run, his trainer added: “Of course. Obviously we wouldn’t have brought him here if we thought he was going to do that. It’s not his run but we’ll see what happened and why that happened.

“He got upset in the stalls which Ryan said was very unusual for him. He’s usually very calm but there you go.

“He was in last but he wasn’t in last by design, so it wasn’t that he was in there too long. Obviously that’s just the way the stalls fell.”

O’Brien was also asked about his decision to have City Of Troy in the parade ring early and he laughed: “Maybe I shouldn’t have! He won’t be the next day!

“Everything was always straightforward with him. All we can do is try and find out what happened and not let it happen again."