2000 Guineas Start Time

The 2000 Guineas is run over the mile. It was first run in 1809 and was won by Wizard. The 2000 Guineas is the first of the classic season flat races held each year. One of five classics, it is traditionally run at the end of April or start of May. The Derby and St Leger form the rest of the Triple Crown. 2000 Guineas Stakes - Group 1 (3y) Newmarket - 1mile The Guineas meeting, held at the historic Newmarket course, hosts the first Classics of the Flat season. The 2,000 Guineas is for three-year-old colts and fillies and is run on the famous Rowley Mile course.

The first race in the QIPCO British Champions Series and the curtain-raising Classic of the British Flat season, the QIPCO 2000 Guineas is open to three-year-old colts and fillies. It’s run on the Rowley Mile at Newmarket, over one mile (1,600 metres) in late April or early May.

Although they only have to carry 8st 11lbs (56kgs) compared with the 9st (57kgs) on a colt’s back, fillies very rarely contest the QIPCO 2000 Guineas nowadays. They almost invariably stick to their own equivalent event, the QIPCO 1000 Guineas, in which they don’t have to take on their male counterparts. The last filly to triumph was Garden Path in 1944.

Trial races are staged in mid-April but many contenders head for the 2000 Guineas without a warm-up run, their trainers relying on getting them fit enough and sharp enough on the training gallops. The 2000 Guineas was first run in 1809. The biggest outsider? Rockavon, at 66-1 in 1961.

In 2011, Frankel put up one of the most devastating 2000 Guineas performances of all time, destroying the opposition with a piece of front-running brilliance which took the breath away.

He had the race sewn up well before half way and passed the post six lengths clear of his nearest rival. It was jockey Tom Queally’s first Classic winner and trainer Henry Cecil’s 25th.

Aidan O’Brien has a fantastic record, winning it for a ninth time with Saxon Warrior in 2018 and a 10th time with Magna Grecia in 2019. All his winners have been making their seasonal reappearances.

Current leading jockey: Frankie Dettori, 3 wins (1996, 1999, 2016)
Current leading trainer: Aidan O’Brien, 10 wins (1998, 2002, 2005-6, 2008, 2012, 2015, 2017, 2018, 2019)

Previous winners

Charlie Appleby has full faith in Pinatubo’s ability to stay a mile as he faces his date with Classic destiny in Qipco 2000 Guineas at Newmarket.

Unbeaten in six starts as a two-year-old, including the National Stakes and Dewhurst Stakes, Pinatubo was awarded the highest juvenile rating since Celtic Swing in 1994, with his mark of 128 putting him 2lb ahead of the mighty Frankel at that stage of his career.

While Pinatubo has proven his capabilities up to seven furlongs, he tackles a mile for the first time at Headquarters this weekend – but Appleby is drawing plenty of encouragement from the Shamardal colt’s pedigree.

He said: “We’re looking forward to it, he had a routine canter on Friday morning and looks great.

“His draw (seven of 12) suits us, it gives William (Buick, jockey) options and we know he’s a straightforward horse. William can put him where he likes, he can see where the pace is and will hopefully be able to ride the race that suits him and the horse.

“I don’t see the mile as a problem at all. On the dam’s side, he’s very stoutly bred there. As an individual he’s very laid back, nothing fazes him.

“I felt the most impressive part of his race (in the Dewhurst) was when he hit the rising ground and the way he galloped out.

“We saw the first signs of his acceleration (when winning the Woodcote Stakes) at Epsom, so that gave us the confidence to go to Ascot (for the Chesham Stakes) and we were always hoping that a step up in trip would also see a fair bit of improvement.

“We’ve been delighted with his preparation going into Guineas weekend. We took him to Chelmsford the other day and William went round on him with a couple of lead horses. He sat on him the week before and it was all very pleasing.

“He’s not a horse that will light you up too much in the mornings, but this year he’s shown his professionalism. He goes about his business and he does what’s asked of him. In doing so, he has met every challenge we have set him so far in his preparation.”

Galloping clues - watch our Qipco 2000 Guineas form guide

The Guineas is being run a month later than originally scheduled due to the coronavirus shutdown, but Appleby is unperturbed by the delay or the lack of a prep run.

2000 Guineas Start Time Change

He said: “I think we all pretty much knew where the picture was going into March, as it was becoming a bit more challenging around the world in what we were seeing, so I think we realised we were potentially going to be slowing off as we saw there in Dubai – they were behind closed doors on Super Saturday and then the World Cup was unfortunately cancelled.

“I was never pushing as early as sometimes you would need to for a Guineas.

“It’s not worried me in respect to his preparation – it was always in our mind to go straight to the Guineas, so I’m confident he’s fit and ready.

“Because the season is delayed, what we are going to see is thick and fast for the first two or three weeks of racing. We’ll have to see what comes to the table, there’s some three-year-olds there that could have progressed.”

While Frankel obviously went on to excel as a three-year-old and beyond, Celtic Swing was beaten in the Guineas before winning the French Derby.

Charlie Appleby spoke about Pinatubo on Racing TV on Friday

Appleby added: “The big question mark is always have you gone on from two to three, as an individual we are delighted with the way he has strengthened.

“I would rather have a neat-sized horse like he is and a balanced horse going into the early Classics.”

Buick is also content with his big-race mount and believes there could yet be more to come from Pinatubo.

He said: “I think there’s definitely progression left in the horse.

“From a jockey’s perspective, he’s a very good horse – he’s a joy to ride and he’s got the temperament to go with it. As he showed last year, he’s very adaptable to different situations.

“The sport needs him at this time and what a time for a potential superstar to turn up.”

Appleby has a second string to his bow in Al Suhail, who won one of his four starts last term and was last seen when finishing second in the Autumn Stakes over the Guineas course and distance.

The Moulton Paddocks trainer said: “He’s an exciting horse, he’s a horse that should get a trip on the page (pedigree), stepping up to a mile and a quarter or a mile and a half.

“He’s very much going to be a player in there, but I think we’ll see more improvement when he starts stepping up in trip.

“Al Suhail is always there in the mornings, everyone that sits on him is always very pleased and said he’s a nice horse. He moves well and he’s done everything.

“Two different characters, but two lovely horses to have in the yard.”

Aidan O’Brien is hoping one of his four-strong team can rise to the challenge of what he views as the “ultimate test of a miler” in Saturday’s Qipco 2000 Guineas at Newmarket.

The 2000 Guineas - watch every winner since 1983!

The Ballydoyle trainer – who has won four of the last five renewals – fields Arizona, Wichita, Royal Dornoch and New World Tapestry in the first Classic of the season.

2000 Guineas Start Time Zone

Arizona and Wichita were second and third respectively behind red-hot favourite Pinatubo in the Dewhurst last year, with Arizona subsequently stepping up to a mile to finish a narrow fifth at the Breeders’ Cup meeting.

Ryan Moore will be aboard Arizona, who struck Group Two gold last term in the Coventry Stakes and was closer to Pinatubo in the Dewhurst than he was in the National Stakes at the Curragh.

O’Brien said: “I suppose Arizona has been the horse on everyone’s mind all along and Wichita won his Group race at Newmarket and then ran very well in the Dewhurst, so I suppose you’d be well happy with both of those. They haven’t worked together.

“He’s a Coventry winner and seemed to get home well there, obviously he is by No Nay Never so he would be an influence for speed, but we always thought a mile would be well within his grasp.

“I suppose sometimes you would run a horse over that trip kind of looking at it with one eye open thinking it wasn’t going to happen (get trip), but we always thought this horse would get the trip.

“We were delighted with his run in the Breeders’ Cup. He ran in the Dehwurst and went there and he was finishing well. He didn’t have a good draw and was a little slow away, but we were very happy after that that a mile would be within his range.

“He travelled plenty last year, he got plenty of experience. I suppose we were travelling him plenty with a view to this year, that he would know what he had to do when he turned up on those days.”

Frankie Dettori will be on Wichita, while Tom Marquand teams up with Royal Lodge Stakes winner Royal Dornoch and Adam Kirby takes the ride on outsider New World Tapestry.

O’Brien added: “New World Tapestry ran a nice race in the Vertem Futurity and Royal Dornoch won the race in Newmarket and he’s a very legitimate horse.”

The Guineas is being run a month later than originally scheduled, but O’Brien believes it is crucial the event is contested.

He said: “The Guineas is a very important race, horses have to stay and handle the contours of Newmarket. The Classics are so important for the thoroughbred breed going forward and that is what everything is geared to really.

“To win a Guineas you kind of have to be a sprinter that is going to stay, it’s a very tough test very early in the season, but that’s the way it should be, because nowadays horses mature early.

“They have to run at two and have to be very competitive all the way. People don’t want to be waiting on horses maturing at four of five. It is the ultimate test of a miler and that’s the way we have always viewed it. It’s a seriously important race.”

With the delayed start to the campaign, there have been no Classic trials, but Andrew Balding is not concerned about pitching Kameko into the main event without a warm-up run.

The Kitten’s Joy colt won the Group One Vertem Futurity Trophy on his final start of the year and has had a racecourse gallop in recent weeks.

Balding said: “I think in the circumstances, going there first time up is to our advantage (having had four runs as a two-year-old). He is a horse I’d expect to improve as he gets more racing, but I think the racecourse gallop we had really helped.

“Only the race will tell us the answers, but I think the preparation is as good as we could have had it.”

Kameko will have to turn around Royal Lodge form with Royal Dornoch after being beaten a neck in that Group Two heat.

Balding added: “If we had our time again I would have been a bit tougher on him leading into that race and I think probably Oisin (Murphy, jockey) would have sat on him a little bit longer.

“It was just a combination of circumstances that didn’t suit the horse. Personally I don’t think it was the track and that doesn’t worry me.

“Newcastle certainly wasn’t to his disadvantage, but he ran a good race in the Solario at Sandown on turf, he probably should have the won Royal Lodge and he’s a high-class horse either surface in my opinion.”

While Balding knows Kameko stays a mile having already won at that distance, he is not so sure he would see out 12 furlongs in the Derby – although a solid run this weekend might see him head to Epsom on July 4.

The trainer said: “If you look at the pedigree, it’s quite interesting as there is a horse called Alderbrook in about the third or fourth dam, he’s somewhere hidden in the pedigree, but that’s about it and I must admit it would be a slight leap of faith to expect him to stay a mile and a half.

“But at the same time if he ran a nice Derby trial at Newmarket it would be very difficult not to be tempted.”

Champion jockey Murphy will be in the plate again at Newmarket as he seeks the first Classic win of his career on a colt owned by Sheikh Fahad al Thani, who is a director of Qipco.

He said: “It would be massive, obviously Qipco sponsor the race and for Andrew and Sheikh Fahad it would be huge. But I’ve had these dreams before and have been disappointed, so we won’t get too excited just yet.”

2000 Guineas Start Time Crossword

While Pinatubo is the favourite for Godolphin, Saeed bin Suroor also fields a serious contender in the royal blue in the shape of Military March, who was unbeaten in two outings last year and is prominent in the ante-post market on the Derby.

Bin Suroor told www.godolphin.com: “Military March did very well as a two-year-old, winning both his starts including a Group Three race. We gave him a break over the winter and have been very pleased with him since he came back in.

“I was very happy with his final piece of work earlier this week and he looks ready to go.

2000 Guineas Start Time

“It looks as though he is a horse who will need further, but he shows plenty of speed and this is a nice starting point for his season. He looks much stronger compared to last year and I’m hoping for a big run.”