Vote for your best 2,000 Guineas winner of the 1970s?

• Vote for your best 2,000 Guineas winner of the 1970s?

Mention the Seventies and some of racing's magic moments instantly come flooding back to Geoff Lewis.

It was an era flushed with two of the biggest names in the business - the great Nijinsky, who won the 2,000 Guineas en route to the Triple Crown in 1970, and Brigadier Gerard, a favourite of Lewis's, who came from off the pace to do him and Mill Reef a year later in the Newmarket Classic.

"There is the thinness of a razor blade between them," said Lewis, who won the 2,000 Guineas on Right Tack in 1969 and now lives in Spain.

"To think we kicked off the Seventies with Nijinsky, who, for me, over a mile and a quarter, was an exceptional horse. I know he went on and got beaten in the Arc and people blamed the jockey, but I would have said his run in the St Leger had a lot to do with that."

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Lewis recalled the consummate ease with which Nijinsky, under the genius of his rider Lester Piggott and eye of his legendary trainer Vincent O'Brien, marked the start of the Seventies with victory in the first Classic of the season.

"He won it easy (the Guineas). It was the way he done it — it was as though he was doing a bit of work. He came off the pace and he had the speed of a five-furlong horse, a big imposing type and he did the same in the Derby. It's very tough (picking) between him and the Brig."

Lewis knows first hand just what a good horse Brigadier Gerard was. He came up against Dick Hern's champion, who was only beaten once in his career — by Roberto in the Benson & Hedges at York 1972— in the '71 Guineas. He was on Mill Reef, another impressive individual on whom he went on to win the Derby the following month.

"My Swallow and I (on Mill Reef) went off in front, because we always thought my fellow wanted further than a mile — he had made the running in the Greenham and went on to win by five lengths. So we went off together and everyone thought we went too fast, but we didn't go fast enough and 'The Brig' came from behind and did us for speed. I could hear Joe (Mercer) coming before he got to me and I knew then I was flat and was about to get beaten.

"I thought the Seventies were good years, although there were still a few ordinary winners. Mon Fils, well he'd be a weak link if you were going against other horses from different eras; Bolkonski and Wollow were just Guineas winners, while Nebbiolo — I was second to him — so I know he was just a hard working Guineas winner and didn't have the class of Nijinsky and Brigadier Gerard.

"But one of the horses who has been overlooked is Tap On Wood. He beat Kris and Young Generation, so that couldn't have been a bad Guineas."

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Pressed on splitting Nijinsky and 'The Brig', it was an agonising decision for Lewis.

"I reckon Nijinsky had a slight edge on Brig, but only just," he said. "But hand on heart, if I had to pick of all the Guineas in the time I was riding in the Classics — and that is the only time I can really give a true estimation because I was attached to good horses - I think El Gran Senor would have beaten both 'The Brig' and Nijinsky.

"He should have won the Derby. He was extra special and he was a cool customer to boot — easy to train, easy to ride, because you could put him in a race and do what you liked with him. He beat a good field in the Guineas, too, pulverised them. But when it comes down to the knuckle, he had the class of all the Guineas winners."

Like Jimmy Lindley, who covered the 10 Sixties winners on Tuesday, Lewis believes John Gosden is poised for a Classic double this weekend.

"His horses are flying," he said. "I would think he has left a bit in the tank with Raven's Pass. The colt's got the speed and it could be considered he hit the front a little too soon the other day (in the Craven Stakes) and let the other horse come back at him. His filly (Infallible) was impressive in the Nell Gwyn and it will take a good one to beat her. Yes, I think he can win both races."

LEWIS' TOP THREE FROM SEVENTIES:

1 NIJINSKY

2 BRIGADIER GERARD

3 TAP ON WOOD