Key events
NEWMARKET 2.55, PALACE HOUSE STAKES, GROUP THREE, 5F
A valuable and historic early-season prize for the sprinters, and an intriguing mix of horses with Group One experience, slower-maturing types who could be reaching their prime and an experienced handicapper or two looking to bridge the gap to Pattern company. The punters are struggling to separate No Half Measures and Washington Heights, a former winner of the Abernant Stakes over six furlongs here, at the top of the betting at around 4-1, while Beautiful Diamond and Tropical Storm, bidding to give Andrew Balding and Oisin Murphy a double on the card, are popular too at slightly bigger odds. I’ll take a punt on one of the handicappers stepping up though, as Rumstar could well have the quality to make a mark at Group Three level after several big runs in competitive handicaps last summer.
SELECTION: RUMSTAR
2,000 GUINEAS FORM GUIDE: RULING COURT
Charlie Appleby’s first-string on jockey bookings with William Buick in the saddle, and he kept a much lower profile than Shadow Of Light, with just two outings. The second of those was in the Group Three Acomb Stakes at York, where he started favourite but finished only third behind the highly-rated The Lion In Winter, having run as though a bit more experience would have seen him in a better light.
Like Field Of Gold, he also seemed to have improved significantly with another winter behind him, and bolted up in the UAE’S version of the 2,000 Guineas at Meydan in early March.
2.35 THIRK RESULT: Flight Plan finds right course
1. FLIGHT PLAN 8-1, 2. Hi Royal 17-2, 3. La Trinidad 33-1.
…. and they are off and running in the Thirsk Hunt Cup!
Flight Plan leads, Northern Express and Cruyff Turn close behind, and now Flight Plan kicks on at the top of the straight … still in front at the half-furlong pole … and Flight Plan just holds on under a fine front-running ride by Sam James.
Late money for Mr King in the Thirsk Hunt Cup and he’s the new favourite at 4-1, Obelix out to 6-1.
2,000 GUINEAS FORM GUIDE: THE TOP TWO-YEAR-OLDS
Having consider the Craven form ahead of the Guineas, the next stop is the best performances from the 2024 juveniles, including the two horses in today’s field with Group One wins to their name last year.
Shadow Of Light took the Dewhurst Stakes by a neck from Expanded, with Seagulls Eleven, one of today’s outsiders, back in fourth.
Scorthy Champ, meanwhile, landed the National Stakes at the Curragh, beating the subsequent Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf winner, Henri Matisse, with the blue-and-white stripes of Seagulls Eleven not too far away in third.
THIRSK 2.35, THIRSK HUNT CUP HANDICAP, 1M
Off to Thirks for the next race on ITV, and one of the major events of the track’s season. This year’s renewal of the Thirsk Hunt Cup is as tight and competitive as ever, with Obelix, who very much looked to be running with this race in mind when fourth over seven furlongs at this track last time out, heading the market at around 11-2. Mr King, Whip Cracker and Our Havana are other leading fancies in a lively market, while Cruyff Turn, a winner at Redcar last time out, is another attracting each-way money.
SELECTION: OBELIX (nap)
Fox Legacy was a ready winner there, while Bopedro ran a huge race into second. Quirky factoid – Bopedro is owned by Brighton & Hove Albion striker Giorginio Rutter, and has set up the interesting possibility of a B&HA-related each-way double as Seagulls Eleven, an outsider for the 2,000 Guineas, is owned by a syndicate of his team mates.
NEWMARKET 2.20 RESULT: Fox Legacy stays on for win
1. FOX LEGACY 15-2, 2. Bopedro 33-1, 3. Arabian Light 7-2.
Off and running in the 2.20 Newmarket…
Hand Of God is mid-division as Metallo takes them along… now Tom Marquand brings Approval on the far side … they are well spread out across the course … Urban Sprawl close up too … Hand Of God needs running room and hasn’t picked up .. Fox Legacy and Oisin Murphy take a useful lead a furlong out … Fox Legacy staying on well and going clear … a couple of lengths to the good at the line
Newmarket 2.20 betting: Hand Of God was an 11-4 shot this morning but he has been backed down to 13-8 and is one of the gambles of the day so far.
13-8 Hand Of God
4-1 Arabian Light
11-2 Approval
15-2 Fox Legacy
10-1 Galeron
20-1 bar
NEWMARKET 2.20, BETFRED SUFFOLK STAKES HERITAGE HANDICAP
A handicap that revolves around Harry Charlton’s Hand Of God, the winning favourite in last summer’s Golden Gates Handicap at Royal Ascot and a four-year-old who features prominently in most lists of “horses to follow” over the coming season. He has been gelded over the winter and could well be that most elusive of creatures, a Group-class horse running a handicap, off a new mark of 102 that is 11lb higher than last year. That is not enough to put him at the top of the weights, however, and the 106-rated Arabian Light, a handicap winner at Meydan in February, is the other runner for money in this race at around 9-2.
SELECTION: HAND OF GOD
Crimson Advocate gets the win by a nose at Goodwood, and it was a neck back to Bright Thunder in third.
GOODWOOD 2.00 RESULT: Crimson Advocate wins
1. CRIMSON ADVOCATE 3-1F, 2. Betty Clover 14-1, 3. Bright Thunder 7-2.
Wow, that is a pixel at most between the first two at Goodwood.
Off and running in the 2.00 at Goodwood …
Sirona takes them along early, Protest next, Crimson Advocate last at halfway … Bright Thunder poised in third, Crimson Advocate going well and making ground on the outside, four fillies converging on the line … Crimson Advocate maybe just got there ahead of Betty Clover but it’s very close !
Goodwood 2.00 latest betting:
5-2 Crimson Advocate
4-1 Bright Thunder
11-2 Sirona
17-2 Sea To Sky
8-1 Arisaig
12-1 bar
It took More Thunder a while to hit top gear in the sprint handicap at Newmarket and he was nearer last than first going into the Dip, but once he hit the rising ground he stayed on with real purpose and he got there with half a stride to spare.
GOODWOOD 2.00, RACINGCLUB.COM CONQUEROR FILLIES’ STAKES, LISTED, 1M
It is nearly two years since Crimson Advocate sped down the rail to win the 2023 Queen Mary Stakes, for juvenile fillies over furlongs, and become a rare US-trained winner at Royal Ascot. It was a hugely promising performance, but she has clearly been a difficult horse to train since, with just four starts to her name. Now with John and Thady Gosden, she was stepped up significantly in trip – from the minimum of five furlongs to a full mile – for her stable debut in March and saw it out well, going down only narrowly to a rival who got first run. If the Gosdens can keep her sound, she could be an interesting contender for Group races at around this trip over the summer, and this looks like a decent starting point for her return to turf. Bright Thunder, the winner of a Listed race at Chantilly for Karl Burke last summer, is the closest market rival to Crimson Advocate, and ran with promise when fifth on her return to action at the Curragh last month, while David Menuisier’s Sirona, who showed up quite well at Group One level in the Falmouth Stakes last July, is another to consider though she is making her seasonal debut here.
SELECTION: CRIMSON ADVOCATE.
NEWMARKET 1.45 RESULT: More Thunder storms it
1. MORE THUNDER 11-4F, 2. Aramram 11-2, 3. Two Tribes 9-1.
Off and running in the Newmarket 1.45:
Lethal Levi broke well and leads, More Thunder is well off the pace and coming under a ride …. Now Aramram leads but here comes More Thunder from clouds … three cross the line together but maybe More Thunder just got there.
Newmarket 1.45 betting:
11-4 More Thunder, 11-2 Woodhay Wonder, 6-1 Aramram, 17-2 Lethal Levi, 10-1 Two Tribes, 11-1 bar.
2,000 GUINEAS FORM GUIDE: FIELD OF GOLD
Will John Gosden finally get his hands on the 2,000 Guineas, to complete the set of all five British Classics? If it does not happen this afternoon, then perhaps it never will as Field Of Gold goes into this afternoon’s race with the standout piece of recent form, and arguably the best form, full stop.
Whether to back him or oppose him is the obvious starting point for any analysis of today’s race from a punter’s point of view, and the answer depends almost entirely on your view of his win in the Craven Stakes over the Classic course and distance, when Wimbledon Hawkeye, who had form in several good juvenile races last season and is a 16-1 shot today, was three-and-a-half lengths away in second.
Field Of Gold’s only start at Group One level as a two-year-old, meanwhile, was in the Prix Jean-Luc Lagardere at Longhamp on Arc day, where he finished fourth behind Aidan O’Brien’s Camille Pissarro (who was beaten on his three-year-old debut at the Curragh in March).
NEWMARKET 1.45, WEATHERBYS WITH VENATOUR RACING HANDICAP, 6F
Sir Michael Stoute’s famous Freemason Lodge stable was down on numbers from its peak by the time he retired at the end of last season, but there was still plenty of quality to be redistributed elsewhere and More Thunder already promises to be a very valuable new recruit for William Haggas’s stable. The four-year-old was campaigned over nine and 10 furlongs by his former handler but he has a potential sprinter’s pedigree and Haggas dropped him back to six furlongs for his stable debut to immediate effect as he beat Aramram and Woodhay Wonder, who both reoppose today on 5lb better terms, by one-and-three-quarter lengths and one-and-a-half. More Thunder’s 5lb penalty for that win makes things slightly more difficult here but he is in excellent hands and it looks the type to progress steadily through the year.
SELECTION: MORE THUNDER.
Unequal Love proved to be a very disappointing favourite for the opener, she could not respond after Oisin Murphy kicked for home on Frost At Dawn and finished nearer last than first.
NEWMARKET 1.10 RESULT: Tiger Bay takes the victory
1. TIGER BAY 11-1, 2. Frost At Dawn 4-1, 3. Vadream 9-1.
Not the start to the afternoon that punters were hoping for, as Tiger Bay and Trevor Whelan run down Frost At Dawn (Oisin Murphy) close home.
They are at the post for the opener here at Newmarket at 1.10, the money has come for Unequal Love and William Haggas’s mare is now a shade of odds-on at 10-11.
Newmarket Heath is a somewhat bleak expanse of East Anglian landscape and the racecourse itself is not the most viewer-friendly track – it was, apparently, designed with spectators riding behind the action on horseback in mind, rather than the common herd watching alongside.
But on a day like today, it absolutely comes alive and there are thousands of racegoers here enjoying the sunshine and looking forward to a top-class afternoon of racing.
ITV’s coverage does not kick in until the 1.45 race here, but proceedings are about to get underway with the 1.10, the Listed Chaloner Stakes over six furlongs. Unequal Love, who had some useful form as a four-year-old including a win in the Wokingham Handicap at Royal Ascot and a third-place finish in the Group One Sprint Cup at Haydock in September, made a successful seasonal debut in this race last year and is trading at around 11-10 for a repeat.
Preamble
Good afternoon from the Rowley Mile at Newmarket, the historic setting for the 2,000 Guineas, the first Classic of the new Flat season, later today.
Eleven runners are due to go to post at 3.35pm BST, and one will take the unique opportunity to add his name to a roll of honour that dates all the way back to 1809. The certain favourite is Field Of Gold, a striking grey, who bolted up in the Craven Stakes over the Classic course-and-distance last month, but he is opposed by several very promising three-year-olds with varying levels of achievement and experience to date.
The very live opponents to Field Of Gold, who will be bidding to give his veteran trainer, John Gosden, a long-overdue first victory in the 2,000 Guineas, include Shadow Of Light, who took Britain’s most prestigious juvenile event, the Dewhurst Stakes, last October, and Ruling Court, a “dark” horse in the manner of last year’s winner, Notable Speech, with just three runs to his name so far.
Shadow Of Light is one of just two juvenile Group One winners in the field – Scorthy Champ, the National Stakes winner, is the other – while Aidan O’Brien relies on Extended as he goes in search of a record-extending 11th Guineas winner.
Elsewhere on today’s televised card, a competitive renewal of the Palace House Stakes, a significant pointer towards the big sprints to come at Royal Ascot and beyond, is due off at 2.55pm, while a Royal meeting winner from last season, Hand Of God, makes his first start since in the Suffolk Stakes Handicap at 2.20pm.
The ITV action is completed by Thirsk’s feature event of the season, the Thirsk Hunt Cup Handicap, at 2.35pm, and a quick trip to Sussex for the Conqueror Stakes for fillies at Goodwood at 2pm.
The 2025 Flat season will have its first Classic winner in just over three hours’ time, and all the build-up as well as the race itself will get in-depth coverage as it happens here on the Guardian’s live blog.
