What’s on this Week? Flat Classics at Newmarket

Features | 1^st May 2023

The first Classics of the year dominate this week’s racing as the Flat season hits top gear at Newmarket. A total of 14 racecourses will host a fantastic array of activities to celebrate the new King on Coronation Weekend.

No less than 14 racecourses will host a fantastic array of activities to celebrate the new King as well as a host of top class races to enjoy on the track.

With incredible sporting action, activities for children, wide ranging food options and the chance to dress up or down, there is something for everyone this week at the races.

Mouth-watering Saturday and Sunday at Newmarket

The first Classics of the year dominate this week’s racing as the Flat season hits top gear at Newmarket.

The QIPCO 2000 Guineas is the glittering highlight of Saturday’s card. Aidan O’Brien is likely to send a strong team over from Ireland as he looks to add to his record ten wins in the opening Classic of the season. Group 1 winners Auguste Rodin and Little Big Bear are among his entries.

The supporting races are headed by the Palace House Stakes. The Group 3 prize has been won by some top-class sprinters in the past.

The show moves on to Sunday when the fillies take centre stage in the Qipco 1000 Guineas. Mediate will probably head O’Brien’s challenge but she is likely to come up against Tahiyra. The Aga Khan’s filly, trained by Dermot Weld, comprehensively beat her in last year’s Group 1 Moyglare Stud Stakes.

To conclude what is sure to be a superb meeting, the Qipco Guineas Festival closes with a bang as the big race is supported by the Group 2 Howden Dahlia Stakes and the rearranged bet365 Gordon Richards Stakes.

Good Racing all across the country

Goodwood hosts its first meeting of the year with a two-day event starting on Friday. The feature of the opening day, the Listed British EBF 40th Anniversary Daisy Warwick Fillies’ Stakes, was won three years ago by subsequent Arc de Triomphe heroine Alpinista.

The Listed William Hill Conqueror Stakes is the highlight of Saturday’s card at the picturesque Sussex track.

There’s also a cracking line-up of midweek fixtures the whet the appetite. Nottingham gets the ball rolling on Tuesday with an excellent card. The big race, the British EBF Nottinghamshire Oaks, sees the return of well-bred French Listed winner Golden Lyra.

Royal Ascot Trials Day

Ascot holds its first Flat meeting of the year on Wednesday. In a sign of things to come, the course holds three official Royal Ascot trials.

The Longines Sagaro Stakes Stakes serves as a stepping stone for the Gold Cup contenders. Top stayers Trueshan and Coltrane will go head-to-head in the Group 3 contest. They fought out some memorable battles last season. Coltrane came out on top in the Doncaster Cup, with Trueshan getting his revenge in the Qipco British Champions Long Distance Cup at Ascot on Champions Day.

The Group 3 British Racing School 40th Anniversary Commonwealth Cup Trial has attracted some of the best three-year-old sprinters, including Breeders’ Cup winner Mischief Magic.

There’s also a trial for the Queen Anne Stakes in the shape of the Howden Bloodstock Paradise Stakes. Qipco Champion Stakes third My Prospero will make his comeback in the Listed contest.

The National Hunt season might have ended on Saturday but there’s still some significant fixtures this week.

Cheltenham hosts it’s last meeting until October on Friday when the amateurs will compete at the home of jumps racing in the track’s annual hunter chase evening. It’s certainly shaping up to be a Classic week of racing in every sense.