About 2000 Guineas
The 2000 Guineas Stakes is a Group 1 flat horse race which is open to three-year-old thoroughbred colts and fillies. It is run on the Rowley Mile course at Newmarket over a distance of 1 mile (1,609 metres), and it is scheduled to take place each year in late April or early May.
It was first run on 18 April 1809, preceding the introduction of the equivalent race for fillies only, the 1000 Guineas, by five years. The races were named according to their original prize funds (one guinea amounted to 21 shillings, or £1.05). Since 2001 both races have offered equal prize money, with each totalling £400,000 in 2009.
The 2000 Guineas is presently the first of five British races to be run during the year which are designated as “Classics”. These races are all restricted to three-year-olds, and those which are open to both colts and fillies – the 2000 Guineas, the Derby and the St. Leger Stakes – comprise the Triple Crown. Fifteen horses have won all three races, most recently Nijinsky in 1970.
Trial races include the Craven Stakes and the Greenham Stakes in mid April, but many horses start the 2000 Guineas without a run since the previous autumn. In recent years fillies have been absent from the race – the last filly to win the race was Garden Path in 1944.