QIPCO 2000 Guineas Stakes (British Champions Series) will kick off the flat racing season at Newmarket today with as many as 13 runners in contention for the Classic title.
Amongst the runners competing in the Group 1 race, which is open to three-year-olds and has a purse of £500,000, is Al Shaqab Racing’s Galileo Gold, who will be taken by trainer Hugo Palmer and jockey Frankie Dettori to add the title to his account following his successful campaign in the last season.
The three-year-old chestnut colt won the Group 2 Vintage Stake during the Qatar Goodwood Festival last July, Novice Stakes at Haydock earlier in the same month and Maiden Auction Stakes at Salisbury in September. He was also the runner-up of Median Auction Maiden Stakes at York in May and he came third in the Group 1 Prix Jean-Luc Lagardere during the Qatar Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe weekend at Longchamp in October.
The 13 runners declared for the one-mile race include Air Force Blue. Aidan O’Brien’s star colt will be taken, with Ryan Moore in the saddle, to score the first Classic of the season following a stellar juvenile campaign that saw him win three Group One races - the Phoenix Stakes, the National Stakes and the Dewhurst. O’Brien also saddles Air Vice Marshal, as he seeks to take the Classic for a record eighth time. Air Vice Marshal will be ridden by Seamie Heffernan.
Godolphin will be represented by the trio — Mark Johnston-trained and James Doyle-ridden Buratino, Jim Bolger’s Herald The Dawn with Kevin Manning astride and Ribchester, trained by Richard Fahey and ridden by William Buick.
The list of contenders also includes Massaat, runner-up to Air Force Blue in the Dewhurst. Trainer Owen Burrows and jockey Paul Hanagan will attempt to reverse the places this time. Peter Chapple-Hyam relies on his Racing Post Trophy victor Marcel under jockey Pat Smullen while Ed Walker looks to Stormy Antarctic following his convincing victory in the Craven Stakes over the course and distance earlier this month. Stormy Antarctic will be ridden by jockey George Baker.