Not only are the 1000 and 2000 Guineas the first Classic contests of the British season, but they are contests in which true racing superstars are born.
Frankel – a champion of the turf
It was here that Frankel, Sea The Stars and last year’s 1000 Guineas winner Minding first announced themselves as being the outstanding champions of their generation.
Favourite Churchill comes into the QIPCO 2000 Guineas without a previous run this year to have put him straight for the big race, but history suggests very strongly that detail need not be a negative.
Churchill seen at an earlier win
Indeed, all seven of O’Brien’s previous 2000 Guineas winners – King Of Kings (1998), Rock Of Gibraltar (2002), Footstepsinthesand (2005), George Washington (2006), Henrythenavigator (2008), Camelot (2012) and Gleneagles (2015) – had been having their first run of the season when they arrived at Newmarket.
Churchill ticks the boxes in so many ways, not least having been champion two-yearold last year, cementing that position with successive Group One triumphs in the National Stakes and Dewhurst.
He was impressive when a wide-margin winner in the National Stakes (a race taken by three of O’Brien’s other 2000 Guineas winners) but offered less sparkle when scrambling home in the Dewhurst.
Aidan O’Brien – goes for an amazing 8th success
Churchill hasn’t been talked up excessively by O’Brien heading into the race, the trainer merely making generally positive noises, but it’s hard to forget Ryan Moore’s unshakeable faith in the horse last season and it was clear from a relatively early stage of 2016 that he was seen standing out above the rest of his peers.
In a throwback to some of racing’s greatest modern battles, it’s Coolmore vs Godolphin in the 2000 Guineas with Churchill’s two biggest threats (according to the betting market) both coming in Godolphin’s royal blue silks.
Barney Roy came home powerfully to win the Greenham (right) by two lengths from another Godolphin runner Dream Castle.
The form looks solid and he gives Richard Hannon an excellent chance of following up his 2014 success in the race with Night of Thunder, who incidentally finished second in the Greenham on his way to Newmarket.
The three most recent French winners of the Guineas, Pennekamp (1995), Zafonic (2003) and Makfi (2010), all came here via the Prix Djebel and that was the route taken by Andre Fabre’s fascinating contender Al Wukair, owned by Al Shaqab
