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The QIPCO 2000 Guineas Stakes

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History

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

Year Horse Jockey Trainer Owner Prize money

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Going/Track

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No/Draw Horse/Jockey Age Form/Type BHA Rating Weight Trainer Odds

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Kameko wins QIPCO 2000 Guineas to give Oisin Murphy a first British Classic

Jockey secures landmark victory aboard son of Kittens Joy

Champion Jockey Oisin Murphy claimed his first British Classic win as Kameko stayed on best to claim a scintillating QIPCO 2000 Guineas.

It was a poignant victory for the 24-year-old rider; winning for the trainer who took him on as an apprentice, Andrew Balding, and wearing the Qatar Racing silks for his long-term supporter HH Sheikh Fahad bin Abdullah Al Thani.

Settled in midfield early on by Murphy, Kameko stalked the leading group for the opening stages before making a move two-and-a-half furlongs out. Murphy then switched him outside in a decisive move as Wichita and hot-favourite Pinatubo took to the front.

It was Kameko however who began to stay on much the best in the final furlong, despite getting a little boxed in, drawing alongside Wichita before hanging right slightly in the closing stages. However he was not to be denied, just prevailing ahead of Frankie Dettori and Wichita. Pinatubo finished a length-and-a-half down in third.

Despite there being no crowd there to celebrate, Murphy was clearly delighted in the aftermath. Speaking to ITV after the race he said, “It means the world…I started my career with Andrew Balding, to ride a Classic winner, my first one, in these colours… is incredible. The stuff of dreams.”

Kameko has now been instilled as the Antepost favourite for the Investec Derby in July.

Results

Position Horse Jockey Trainer Owner
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The Course

Newmarket is known as the “Home of Racing” - and who would argue?

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Certainly not James I, the first notable fan who built a palace in the Suffolk town in 1605. Racing fanatic Charles II followed suit, establishing the first horse race ever run in Britain under written rules. The Rowley Mile Racecourse, indeed – one of two at Newmarket, the other being the July Course – is named after his favourite hack, Old Rowley.

Today, Newmarket is horseracing’s centre of the Universe, with 2,500 thoroughbreds in training, shared by 75 licensed trainers and spread out over 2,800 acres of training grounds. Oh, and there’s also enough space left over for 65 stud farms, including the National Stud, and Tattersalls, the biggest horse sales company in Europe.

The QIPCO 2000 Guineas, one of Britain’s five Classics, is hosted by Newmarket. The race was first run in 1809. The venue also stages the QIPCO 1000 Guineas.

Getting there

Newmarket Racecourses,
Westfield House,
The Links,
Newmarket,
Suffolk,
CB8 0TG

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