Forget such dizzy ambitions as seeing the triple crown realised this season for the first time since Nijinsky in 1970. Teofilo, who was being targeted at that feat, will surely not contest a single leg of it now that he has missed last Saturday’s Stan James 2,000 Guineas. Plans for the impressive winner, Cockney Rebel, mean that even the Guineas-Derby double has gone west.

In fact, it is hard to believe that this year’s Derby or Oaks winner were among either field for the first two classics last weekend. This season there could be two distinct sets of classic-generation performers, with rarely the twain to meet. Nashwan, the last horse to land the 2,000 Guineas and the Derby, will not see his achievement matched.

Cockney Rebel will remain over a mile, perhaps trying ten furlongs later, while the Guineas second Vital Equine and third Dutch Art will surely not get a yard farther than a mile. Among the colts, only Aidan O’Brien’s pair, the fourth and fifth, Duke Of Marmalade and Eagle Mountain, shaped as though they wanted a bit farther. Neither, though, is certain to improve for a step up in distance as far as the mile and a half of the Derby.

In the 1,000 Guineas, it is a similar story. The winner Finsceal Beo is not even entered at Epsom. The runner-up Arch Swing was the best long-term looker in the field and will definitely improve for the run. She will have a shout in the Coronation Stakes. Simply Perfect, third home, is honest but has little hope of lasting out farther. Famous last words, but the only credible Oaks candidate in the race appears to be fourth-placed Treat.

But there is more substance to Newmarket’s Guineas weekend than the mere classics and two of the supporting races could yet provide Epsom interest. Salford Mill beat well-backed Derby prospects from each of the European-based superpowers, Ballydoyle and Godolphin. He will stay but, as jockey Kerrin McEvoy observed, is a big colt and may be ungainly over the tricky Derby course.

Of even greater interest was Dalvina, who won the Pretty Polly by an identical margin to that of her illustrious predecessor at Ed Dunlop’s yard, Ouija Board. Her stamina and easygoing attitude may be worth more to Oaks punters than the better form posted by doubtful stayers in the Guineas.

Overall, despite losing three of its biggest names in Teofilo, Holy Roman Emperor and Sander Camillo, the Guineas meeting was a great success, even if tradition has been dashed for another year.

Big screens at racecourses have been a huge step forward in the sport, affording racegoers a good view of the action no matter how gloriously eccentric the track layout. But it is time to step up this service. It only takes a little thought and feeling for the action to take the racegoing experience to another level.

At Ascot there are televisions everywhere and two big screens, but if you want to see a replay, you only have one chance, shortly after the live race. After that, and until the next race, these screens pointlessly show the empty track.

Ascot is not alone in inflicting this vexation on its patrons. Sunday’s first race at Newmarket went to a photo-finish but, while we awaited the judge’s decision, the big screen did not show a freeze-frame or final-furlong replay. Instead it tracked one of the exiting horses involved in the photo. The other horse won.

Further food for thought at overpriced Ascot

Ascot could throw another £10 million at its problems and it would be as fruitless as the last, as I discovered a week ago when the track’s revamped concourse-level viewing was opened.

It is a muted improvement to the botched £220 million original but until general-admission racegoers are granted access to an upper level they will continue to be grossly short-changed.

The ill-executed hierarchical structure recalls the Ascot of old when customers were made to feel awfully grateful just to be admitted.

So zealously are the upper levels guarded that my badge was checked at the bottom and top of the same escalator. Few linger in the cold, cavernous and inhospitable concourse below.

The food and drink prices add insult to injury. A burger cost £6, a “burger meal” £8; the difference a small handful of chips. The burger, my friend said, before throwing it in the bin, was “awful”. My cheese sandwich was good but overpriced at £4. Tea and coffee are a rip-off at £2. To cite just one contrasting example, Wincanton’s tasty burgers cost £3.50.