Bachir levelled the score 1-1 in his personal duel with Giant's Causeway by winning Saturday's Entenmann's Irish 2,000 Guineas but Aidan O'Brien was yesterday itching to get to grips again with Godolphin's double classic winner in the St James's Palace Stakes.

Bachir proved himself a top notcher by adding the Irish Guineas to the French version but admirable though the colt is, yet again it was Frankie Dettori that grabbed the attention with a masterly opportunistic ride.

Off a muddling pace Dettori decided to best place to be was the front. He gradually upped the pace to suit Bachir, four lengths in arrears of the long striding Giant's Causeway in last year's Prix de la Salamandre, and few watching could quibble about it not suiting the heavily backed favourite. The Ballydoyle horse battled well but just ran out of distance and went down by a neck.

O'Brien emphasised yesterday that Giant's Causeway will be kept to a mile for the time being and exuded the frustration of a horseman whose horse didn't have the race run to suit.

"We can go up in distance any time. Giant's Causeway likes a strong, level pace because he needs to get into a rhythm to set him rolling. The tactics are always Michael's (Kinane) but at Ascot I think he will let him stride on," said O'Brien.

Asked if he believed the form could be reversed around Ascot's mile, O'Brien said simply: "I'm looking forward to the race."

The statement spoke volumes but it cannot change the result of the first Irish classic of the season which saw Dettori emulate his father Gianfranco who won the Irish 2,000 Guineas on Pampapaul in 1976.

"I'm thrilled to have matched my father's victory," beamed the Italian who will face a difficult choice at Royal Ascot as the Godolphin are also aiming the Kentucky Derby flop China Visit at the James's Palace.

"I will have to scratch my head and just hope they go for different races," said Dettori who admitted the vital point of the Guineas was three furlongs out. "We stole a length there and my fellow galloped to the line," he said.

The outsider Cape Town ran a fine third but Barathea Guest's trainer George Margarson was not happy with the ground which dried out too much for the £25,000 supplementary entry.

"It's been a waste of time. I've just given the racecourse manager the biggest rollicking of his life and asked him how the hell this ground could have been heavy on Tuesday," Margarson said.

John Oxx's Namid impressively justified favouritism in the Greenlands Stakes and the colt with arthritis in a knee now has a choice of the Kings Stand or the Cork & Orrery at Ascot.

"He has been a good horse all his life but it's a day at a time with him because of his arthritis which he'd had since he was a yearling," said Oxx.