Key events
1.10 NEWMARKET, ELLEN CHALONER STAKES, LISTED, 6F
The first race on the card is a Listed event, the grade that sits between top-end handicaps and Group races, but the top three in the betting – Flora Of Bermuda, Sky Majesty and Sayidah Dariyan – were all regulars in Group One company last season. All three are making their seasonal debuts here and so will be expected to improve through the campaign, but all three also ran well first time up last season and it is impossible to rule any of them out on that basis. Timeform rates Flora Of Bermuda a couple of pounds clear of Sayidah Dariyan, and while she has yet to register a win on ground as fast as today’s, she has a remarkably solid and consistent profile over recent seasons and probably the safest bet on that basis. Overall, though, this is probably a race to watch with an eye on Royal Ascot and beyond.
SELECTION: FLORA OF BERMUDA.
Preamble
Good afternoon from Newmarket on the first Saturday in May – 2,000 Guineas day, in other words, and a date that has been circled on the calendars of Flat racing fans since the 2025 turf season concluded in November.
The first Classic of the new campaign – one of just five all season – has a long and storied history that stretches back to 1809, and the original prize, as the name suggests, was 2,000gns, or £2,100. That, so Google tells me at least, is the equivalent of £220k today, so the actual first prize for this afternoon’s winner, which is a shade under £300k after a couple of supplementary entries earlier in the week, compares fairly well.
The race is about far more than the prize money, however, as the winner can expect to enjoy a long and – for his owners – highly lucrative career as a stallion. And it is also the first leg of the fabled Triple Crown of the English turf, the Guineas-Derby-St Leger treble that has been completed only twice in the last 100 years: by Bahram in 1935 and Nijinsky in 1970.
There is a £2m bonus up for grabs if one of today’s 15 runners can go on to complete the Triple Crown, but realistically many are bred to be best at between a mile and 10 furlongs and perhaps only Oxagon – by Frankel out of a Dubawi mare – and the unbeaten King’s Trail – by Sea The Stars out of a Dubawi mare who stayed 10 furlongs – could be seen as potential Triple Crown candidates.
The main supporting race on today’s card is the Palace House Stakes at 2.55, a five-furlong sprint where the hugely popular mare Asfoora will be running for the first time since her win in the Prix de l’Abbaye at Longchamp on Arc day, while dual-screeners will also be looking forward to ITV Racing’s annual trip to Thirsk for the Thirsk Hunt Cup Handicap at 2.40.
All the news, betting moves, action, results and reaction will be here on the live blog as the afternoon unfolds, and the card here at Newmarket gets underway underway with the Chaloner Stakes, a six-furlong Listed contest, at 1.10.
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