The Betfred Guineas Festival began on Friday 2nd May with the Group 2 Jockey Club Stakes being the highlight. The King Power owned Bellum Justum prevailed from the favourite Silver Knott for Andrew Balding and Oisin Murphy by a length and a half.
Earlier the Listed King Charles II Stakes was won well by the unbeaten Cosmic Year trained by Harry Charlton for Juddmonte and ridden by Ryan Moore. Plans remain fluid for this Kingman colt and he looks a nice prospect. The other Listed event on the card was the Newmarket Stakes where only four runners went to post. Another unbeaten colt namely Alpine Trail won readily for Godolphin, Appleby and Buick.
Saturday saw the first Classic of the season and the 2000 Guineas was won by Ruling Court for the “Boys in Blue” from Moulton Paddocks. He held the Craven Stakes victor and favourite Field Of Gold by half a length. Many quite rightly questioned the ride of the second horse and maintained the best horse didn’t win. The 2000 Guineas still eludes Mr Gosden after all this time in his long and successful career. The nine race card was full of quality as you would expect. The Listed Ellen Chanloner Stakes saw a small turn up when Tiger Bay took the honours by a neck at 11/1 for Henry Candy and jockey Trevor Whelan from Frost At Dawn trained by William Knight.
The Group 3 Palace House Stakes for the speedsters saw Rumstar take the race impressively for Jonathon Portman and Rob Hornby.
The two ultra competitive Heritage Handicaps were the taken by More Thunder who followed up his win here at the Craven Meeting by a short head for Haggas and Marquand. The other went to Fox Legacy for the Balding – Murphy combination.
Sunday saw the 1000 Guineas and we witnessed another classic win for Godolphin, Appleby and Buick. Desert Flower made it five from five after making most from halfway and staying on strongly up the rising ground to hold off the Ollie Sangster trained Flight who out ran his odds to take second. Sangster also saddled the third horse Simmering and deserves great credit for preparing both fillies to run so well.
Congratulations to all connections on the 2000/1000 Guineas double.
The Pretty Polly Stakes saw the return of Falakeyah who we flagged up last autumn after her debut over a mile at Wolverhampton. She set her own fractions and won easily by three and a half lengths over this ten furlongs. Owners Shadwell, trainer Owen Burrows and jockey Jim Crowley were suitably impressed and maybe a trip to Epsom next month is the plan?