From next year, the QIPCO Guineas Festival at Newmarket will be extended from two to three days. The 2022 fixture will run from Friday, Apr. 29 to Sunday, May 1. The meeting was last run as a three-day fixture in 2003.
The QIPCO 2000 Guineas will remain in its traditional Saturday slot, with the QIPCO 1000 Guineas run as usual on the Sunday. Details for the Friday programme are yet to be announced.
“We're delighted to be enhancing one of British racing's most prestigious Flat racing fixtures and a meeting which has shown sustained growth in the last decade,” said Sophie Able, general manager of Newmarket Racecourses.
“An additional day means more flexibility to optimise the meeting's race programme both for participants and those who follow and bet on racing, as well as the chance to use the existing infrastructure to create another great day out for our customers. There are wider benefits too in terms of the shape of Newmarket's early-season fixture list, more recovery time for the course itself, and an easier operational switch onto the July Course.”
The Guineas meeting kicks off the British Champions Series, which will now begin a day earlier. For the past two seasons, general racegoers have been unable to attend the first Classics of the British season owing to Covid restrictions being in place. In 2020, the Guineas meeting was delayed until the first weekend of June following a three-month shutdown of racing in the early days of the pandemic.
Rod Street, chief executive of British Champions Series, said, “The QIPCO Guineas Festival is one of the highlights of the British sporting calendar and we welcome the fact that racegoers will be able to enjoy a third day of brilliant racing from the Rowley Mile.
“Whilst the circumstances in 2020 were very different, we have seen the interest that a three-day Festival is able to generate and very much view this as a chance to engage more people in one of racing's most important events.”
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