2000 Guineas: Saturday
The QIPCO 2000 Guineas, is one of Newmarket’s Group 1 races, open to three-year-old colts and fillies and boasts an impressive roll of honour including the unforgettable Frankel. The race takes place at 3.35pm on Saturday 5th May.
Although they only have to carry 8st 11lbs compared to the 9st a colt is allotted, fillies very rarely contest the QIPCO 2000 Guineas nowadays.
They almost invariably stick to their own equivalent event, the QIPCO 1000 Guineas which is run the day after on a Sunday. The last filly to triumph was Garden Path in 1944.
Trends & Statistics: 2000 Guineas
- Price – 5 of the last 10 winners were favourites, 6/10 winners were in the top 3 in the betting.
- Last Run – 7 of the last 10 winners won on their last run, 8/10 winners had their last run over 189 days ago.
- Previous Course Form – 5/10 winners had at least 1 previous run at Newmarket, 4/10 winners had at least 1 previous win at Newmarket.
- Rating – 8/10 winners had a rating of 110 or higher.
- Frankie Dettori rode the winner in 1996, 1999 & 2016.
- Aidan O’Brien has won the race in 1998, 2002, 2005, 2006, 2008, 2012, 2015, 2017 & 2018.
2000 Guineas: Leading Contenders
Aidan O’Brien is looking for his tenth win in this race and has two well fancied contenders in the shape of Magna Grecia and Ten Sovereigns.
The aforementioned won the Vertum Futurity Group One at Doncaster last October and looks like an improving horse, while Ten Sovereigns is actually rated 7lbs higher than Magna Grecia and has won three from three of his starts.
Ten Sovereigns took the Group One Middle Park Stakes here last September and should he take to a mile, he sets a very high standard.
Advertise will also be a popular choice on Saturday as Frankie Dettori searches for his fourth victory in this Classic.
Martyn Meade’s runner won the Group One Phoenix Stakes last season in Ireland and was a decent second to Too Darn Hot in the Dewhurst here last October.
Madhmoon lost his unbeaten record in the Guineas Trial at Leopardstown, but he can be forgiven that run on ground not to his liking and he will be much sharper here.
The Willie Haggas-trained Skardu took the Craven Stakes here last time. Haggas has yet to win this race but this Sharmadal colt has already advertised the fact that he can win at a mile.
Fielden Stakes scorer Kick On also looks a live contender. Any horse that is owned by Qatar Racing Limited, trained by John Gosden and ridden by Oisin Murphy, is invariably no slouch and the Charm Spirit colt can progress further.
888sport suggests: Kick On (e/w).
1000 Guineas: Sunday
Staged on the Sunday of the Guineas weekend, the fillies’ 1000 Guineas is a very prestigious race. Just like the 2000 Guineas which is held the day before, it is also one of only five British classic races and the first fillies’ classic race of the season.
The QIPCO 1000 Guineas is run over Newmarket’s Rowley Mile. A tough test for the fillies, the last 2 furlongs of the Rowley Mile always sorts out the champions from the also-rans.
The rarely attempted fillies’ Triple Crown (Guineas, Oaks, St Leger) is even harder to win. Only 9 fillies have ever done so – 8 of that 9 were before 1955. The last filly to win it was Oh So Sharp in 1985.
Trends & Statistics: 1000 Guineas
- Price – 2 of the last 10 winners were favourites, 6/12 winners were in the top 3 in the betting.
- Last Run – 7 of the last 12 winners won on their last start, 4/10 winners had a run in the last 30 days.
- Previous Course Form – 7/10 winners had at least one previous run at Newmarket, 5/10 had at least one previous win at the course.
- Rating – 7/10 winners had a rating of 106 or higher.
- Owner Hamdam Al Maktoum has won the race 5 times (1990, 1991, 1995, 2000 & 2009).
- Aidan O’Brien has trained the winner four times: Virginia Waters (1995), Homecoming Queen (2012), Minding (2016) & Winter (2017).
1000 Guineas: Leading Contenders
Aidan O’Brien has taken the 1,000 Guineas three times in the past 10 years and naturally he’s represented once more on the Rowley Mile, this time with four entries. His best two on paper look to be Just Wonderful and Fairyland.
Just Wonderful ran out the clear winner of the Rockfel Stakes at headquarters last September before being shipped over to the United States to run in the Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies Turf where she finished fourth.
The return to Newmarket and a much more suitable surface should play to her strengths.
Fairyland was a winner of four of her five starts last season, including the Group One Cheveley Park Stakes. She certainly has the best juvenile form on offer here and if she can stay out the trip she should be in the mix.
The impressive Nell Gwyn winner Qabala has been the subject of a gamble in the ante-post markets since winning that contest and is highly likely to go off the favourite in the horse racing betting.
Roger Varian’s Scat Daddy filly won that race nicely and will certainly be in the shake up if she can reproduce that level of form.
Another filly out of Scat Daddy that will have plenty of supporters here will be the John Oxx-trained Skitter Scatter.
She began her career beating Sergei Prokofiev over the minimum trip, with the highlight of her excellent two-year-old season being her Group One victory in the Moyglare Stud Stakes.
Joseph O’Brien’s Iridessa will also be a popular pick. She began last year with a maiden win at Killarney and ended it with a comprehensive win in the Fillies' Mile.
In the 1,000 Guineas Trial at Leopardstown earlier this month she recorded a third-place finish which she can build upon on Sunday.
888sport suggests: Skitter Scatter (e/w).
*Odds subject to change - correct at time of writing*
