QIPCO 1000 Guineas | Horse Racing Free Tips

Justify and O’Brien Dominate Guineas Entries

The entries for the first two Classics of the season have been released, with 49 horses entered in each of the Qipco 2,000 Guineas and Qipco 1,000 Guineas.

The colts will line up at Newmarket on Saturday, May 4 when it is likely that much of the attention will focus on the unbeaten City Of Troy (Justify), who at this stage is the ante-post favourite for the 2,000 Guineas. Trained by Aidan O'Brien, he has left Ireland for two of his three starts to win the G2 Superlative S. at Newmarket's July Course followed by the G1 Dewhurst S. on the Rowley Mile.

City Of Troy's stable-mate Henry Longfellow (Ire) (Dubawi {Ire}), a son of the 1,000 Guineas winner Minding (Ire) (Galileo {Ire}), is currently second-favourite and is one of eight entries in the race for the Ballydoyle stable. The other two Irish-trained entries are the G1 Keeneland Phoenix S. winner Bucanero Fuerte (GB) (Wootton Bassett {GB}), trained by Adrian Murray, and Jim Bolger's unraced Clean Energy (Ire) (Dawn Approach {Ire}).

The G1 Prix Jean-Luc Lagardere winner Rosallion (Ire) could become an important first Classic runner for his sire Blue Point (Ire) and represents Richard Hannon Jr., who won the race 10 years ago with Night Of Thunder (Ire) and also has Son (GB) entered this year. He too is by a second-season sire in Too Darn Hot (GB). In that same category is Sons And Lovers (GB), by Study Of Man (Ire), who is one of four entries for Jane Chapple-Hyam, two of which are owned by former trainer Peter Harris.

Charlie Appleby has three colts entered led by the G1 Kameko Futurity Trophy winner Ancient Wisdom (Fr) (Dubawi {Ire}) and Saaeed Bin Suroor, who won last year's 1,000 Guineas with Mawj (GB) (Exceed And Excel {Aus}), has one of the Godophin quartet, Olympic Candle (Ire) (Profitable {Ire}).

Eve Johnson Houghton has entered Mister Sketch (GB) (Territories {Ire}) for Wathnan Racing and the G3 Acomb S. winner Indian Run (Ire) (Sioux Nation) for the Bronte Collection, while David Menuisier has three colts entered including the G1 Criterium International winner Sunway (Fr) (Galiway {GB}).

Aidan O'Brien is also the trainer of the favourite for the following day's 1,000 Guineas, Opera Singer. Like City Of Troy, she is by Coolmore's American-based sire and Triple Crown winner Justify, and she won last season's G1 Prix Marcel Boussac.

Opera Singer is one of 16 Irish-trained fillies engaged in the race, including eight from her own stable, while Paddy Twomey could have two runners, Purple Lily (Ire) (Calyx {Ire}) and One Look (Ire) (Gleneagles {Ire}), and Natalia Lupini has her first Classic entrant in Kitty Rose (Ire) (Invincible Army {Ire}).

Ollie Sangster is another young trainer with a frost Classic hope in Shuwari (Ire) (New Bay {GB}), along with Amy Murphy, the trainer of Needlepoint (Ire) (Blue Point {Ire}).

The G1 Moyglare Stud S. winner Fallen Angel (GB) is currently the leading British-trained hope and is one of two entries for her trainer Karl Burke along with Darnation (Ire). Both fillies are by Too Darn Hot. Fallen Angel represents Steve Parkin's Clipper Logistics, which also has the William Haggas-trained Love Dynasty (Fr) (Dubawi {Ire}) engaged in the 1,000 Guineas.

Among the four fillies entered from the John and Thady Gosden stable is Cheveley Park Stud's Listed winner Regal Jubilee (GB) (Frankel {GB}).

Christopher Head is the sole French trainer with an entry and she is another daughter of Justify, Ramatuelle, who was only narrowly beaten by Vandeek (GB) in the G1 Prix Morny.

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Channon’s Classic First Keeps it in the Family

Jack Channon took up the reins at the fabled West Ilsley yard in January and has made a determined start in his bid to follow the 32-year training career of his father, Mick.

Currently saddling winners at an impressive strike-rate, including a double on Bank Holiday Monday, the younger Channon can approach the prospect of his first Classic runner in the QIPCO 1,000 Guineas with a degree of confidence. Yes, the filly in question, Caernarfon (GB) (Cityscape {GB}), may be trading at up to 50/1 for Sunday's feature but the last time she was seen in action in public it was when posting a victory over course and distance in the Listed EBF Montrose Fillies' S. in October.

“It's a big weekend ahead,” Channon admits. “But Caernarfon seems to be in great form. Touch wood, all her work to this point has been foot-perfect, and we think we've got her exactly where we want. She's pretty much just come in her coat, so I think she's flourishing at the right time, and I couldn't be happier with the way she is. Now it's just whether she's good enough, which is always the case, isn't it?”

There is a touch of deja vu to this particular Classic runner, for the Channon stable, in the days of Mick's reign, sent Caernarfon's full-sister Dan's Dream (GB) to Newmarket for the 1,000 Guineas after she won the G3 Fred Darling S. at Newbury. Both fillies have run in the colours of their breeder, Steven Smith's Hunscote Stud, with Caernarfon being owned in partnership with Paul Humphreys and Jonathan Sweeney.

“Funnily enough, seeing as they're full-sisters, they actually couldn't be more different as fillies,” says Channon of the siblings. “Dan's Dream was a lot stockier, and she didn't get the mile. She was an out-and-out seven-furlong filly, whereas this filly I feel will be a mile-and-a-quarter filly in time.

“Even though, obviously, they share the ability, they're different types, which will hopefully grant Caernarfon better fortunes in the Guineas than her sister.”

Though arriving at Newmarket without a prep run, Caernarfon is not short of experience. From her July debut, she ran seven times in 2022, winning twice and finishing in the top three on a further four occasions, including taking third in the Listed Silver Tankard S. over a stiff mile at Pontefract before her stakes victory on the Rowley Mile. The undulations should hold no fear for her.

Cannon continues, “She's a filly that doesn't need an awful lot of work. She's quite a light-framed filly, and I didn't feel like she needed a prep run to get her spot on.

“I think we've got her exactly where we want her. She's done some nice bits of work, and she's been there and done it over the course and distance. The track won't be a problem, so it's all down to ability now.”

With nine wins to his credit already this year, Channon has ensured it's very much business as usual at West Ilsley, which has previously housed such star names as Queen's Logic (Ire), Youmzain (Ire), Samitar (Ire), Music Show (GB), Nahoodh (Ire) and Zafeen (GB) since Mick Channon bought the Berkshire stable from HM The Queen in 1999.

“I think if you've got good horses to aim at good races, there's a natural buzz that it creates around the place,” says Channon of the current mood in the yard. “We're very busy, so it's hard to stop and properly take it all in. But definitely, just to have those good horses to even compete in the big races gives you that buzz that you feel like you're properly involved. It's been an enjoyable time for everyone.”

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O’Brien, Dettori Team Up To Win 1,000 Guineas With Mother Earth

Frankie Dettori celebrated winning the 20th Classic of his career with victory on Mother Earth in the QIPCO 1,000 Guineas – then joked he has “plenty of time” to beat the legendary Lester Piggott's record of 30.

It was a fourth victory in the race for the 50 year old Italian jockey and a seventh for trainer Aidan O'Brien.

Taking the lead just inside the final quarter mile, Zoffany filly Mother Earth, a 10-1 chance, kept on finding more and at the finish had a length to spare over the staying on Saffron Beach (9-1). A futher neck back in third was 22-1 chance Fev Rover.

Speaking after the race Dettori said: “I was super excited to win that! I didn't have the pressure to ride the favorite and had a very willing partner on a filly who I knew would give me everything.

“Aidan gave me a lot of confidence this morning and said to forget about (favored) Santa Barbara and just ride my own race. He told me to get cover and I did and like I said I forgot about the favorite and just kicked at the top of the hill.

“I knew she'd stay really well and I won – it's as simple as that! It's my 20th Classic (in Britain) at 50 years old. I'm only 10 behind Lester now so I've got plenty of time!

“It's great to do it at Newmarket. I'm extremely happy and I got lucky to get that ride. Lester was 56 so I've got six years left and Kevin (Manning, 54, winner of Saturday's 2,000 Guineas with Poetic Flare) won yesterday – come on the oldies!”

Before the QIPCO 1000 Guineas, many had expected an O'Brien victory in the race to come via his 5-2 joint favorite Santa Barbara, who finished fourth under Ryan Moore.

But O'Brien said of Mother Earth: “She's a very good filly and always was. It was unfair to the favorite (Santa Barbara) to come but we had to come with the view to coming back over here for the Oaks.

“Santa Barbara is only a baby and Ryan said that he'd liked to have waited longer but he saw Frankie coming down his outside and he had to come then and she was just green in the dip, but after having one easy run it was a great run.

“Mother Earth is a very consistent filly – she had a great run in America last time out last year and that was very professional. She relaxed and quickened and did everything really well, so we're delighted. I think Mother Earth will stick to a mile and we'll step Santa Barbara up in trip – the latter was always going to go to the Oaks next time and this filly was always going to go to the Irish Guineas next. That was the plan.

“We won't go again with Santa Barbara (before the Cazoo Oaks). We felt that she would learn as much coming here as she would for three runs, but it was a risk doing it that she was going to get beaten.

“She'll be fine, she's classy and she would have learnt a lot today and she has plenty time to get over that. Ryan was very happy and he said to me that in an ideal world he didn't want to commit as early.

“But with Frankie coming he had to keep going then and she was a little bit unbalanced going into the dip, which is understandable as we've never taken her off the bridle at home. Hopefully she'll come out of it ok and it will do her good.

“I didn't ask Frankie anything afterwards – I just listened. I'm sure you could hear it all as well! It's great to have him and he's an unbelievable rider.”

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Beach A Winter Warmer For Chapple-Hyam

With few natural barriers to blasts of icy wind, Newmarket’s flatlands can make the winter feel extra arduous, particularly in a year which begins with the third British lockdown in the midst of a pandemic which refuses to abate.

More than ever, we all need something to look forward to, and for Jane Chapple-Hyam, hope is embodied in the form of a robust chestnut filly. The trainer is blessed with an irrepressible spirit which has surely seen her through some tougher times and, in early January, despite the absence of her annual return to her native Melbourne, she is full of aspiration for the season ahead. With a genuine Classic prospect in a stable of just 32 horses, it is easy to see why.

The filly who can be described as a proper winter warmer is Saffron Beach (Ire). She didn’t enter training until last July but quickly became one of the star performers from the first crop of her Ballylinch Stud sire New Bay (GB). In fact, it was fortuitous that the filly came to Chapple-Hyam’s stable in the first place. Initially bought as a foal by Liam Norris on behalf of the trainer’s erstwhile step-brother Ben Sangster as a pinhooking prospect, Saffron Beach missed two yearling sales and was also withdrawn from last July’s sale at Tattersalls as a foot problem took its time to be resolved. In partnership with co-owner James Wigan, Sangster and his wife Lucy eventually opted to place the filly in training with Chapple-Hyam, who the previous season had won the listed Chalice S. with Love So Deep (Jpn) (Deep Impact {Jpn}) for a syndicate involving Sangster’s brother Adam, the owner of Swettenham Stud in Australia.

“She had issues with her feet but Ben and Lucy’s farrier and then my farrier Ian have sorted her out and we haven’t looked back,” says Chapple-Hyam of Saffron Beach. “Everything has been fine, but that’s why she came in very late. Back in July when the first lockdown was lifted I went down to Manton to view her and she was just about over all her issues.”

Whatever frustrations may have been felt at the filly missing her sales engagements were quickly dispelled when she made an eye-catching debut at Newmarket in late September, winning a seven-furlong maiden by more than four lengths. A fortnight later she was back on the Rowley Mile and made light work of the heavy ground to win the G3 Oh So Sharp S. It has been a short and sweet racing career to date, but very much one which entitles her connections to dream their way through lockdown.

Chapple-Hyam recalls, “As she was getting fitter, Abi Harrison, who rides her every day, said that she had a good gear change and that she really liked her very much. Then I got Adam Kirby to come in and sit on her once and he also liked her, and away we went. But by then the turf season was getting close to finishing.”

This year, the trainer’s eye will be firmly on the start of the turf season, with her preferred path to the 1000 Guineas being via the G3 Nell Gwyn S.

“The obvious thing for her would be to start just up the road in the Nell Gwyn. She’s two from two at Newmarket so it makes sense to go there instead of the Fred Darling,” she says. “She’s versatile on the going having won on good and very soft. We haven’t really seen what she can do on good quick ground. At the moment I’m just looking forward to the Nell Gwyn and we’ll take it from there.”

Following her Group 3 success, Saffron Beach was turned out for a six-week break with the Sangsters at Manton, a place with which her trainer has had a long association. She started out working there for her stepfather Robert Sangster, initially when Michael Dickinson was the resident trainer and later under Barry Hills. During this time she met her now-former husband Peter Chapple-Hyam, to whom she was assistant trainer for 16 years before she started training in her own right in Newmarket in 2005 following their separation.

“I must have had a good 18 years at Manton,” she says. “I took the filly back down there in the horse box so it was nice to have another tour around with Ben and Lucy. It has changed, as things do, but is’s still a special place.”

Known at home as ‘Petal’, after her dam Falling Petals (GB) (Raven’s Pass), who is a half-sister to the dam of young Tally-Ho Stud stallion Cotai Glory (GB) (Exceed And Excel {Aus}), Saffron Beach appears to have blossomed over the winter and she undertook her first canter of the year under Harrison on Wednesday morning.

“She’s definitely grown and she’s a good doer, in fact she’s a monster like that,” says Chapple-Hyam. “She loves her food and guards it in her stable. You want to leave her alone when she’s munching but she has a lovely character though. She’s sweet and kind, but as soon as the bridle and saddle are put on she turns into a pro athlete. And she has a lovely presence when she’s out. You instantly look and say, ‘who’s that?'”

The trainer knows she is fortunate still to have Saffron Beach in her stable as, inevitably for a horse who made such a notable start to her career, the offers came in for her after her black-type win.

“I am obviously very pleased that Mr Wigan and Mr Sangster are both at that age when they don’t really need to sell,” she says with a laugh. “I think we are all really excited to see how far we can go with her this season. To me, she has trained on. Physically you can see that. It’s great for Ben and Lucy. They have another good filly [Sense Of Style] with Joseph O’Brien as well so it could be a good year for them.”

In Chapple-Hyam’s first full season with a licence in 2006, with just ten horses in her care, she sent out the 100/1 winner of the Ebor H., Mudawin (Ire) (Intikhab), and has had a decent amount of stakes performers in the ensuing years, including treble Group 3 winner Mull Of Killough (Ire) (Mull Of Kintyre), from a string which has rarely grown beyond 30.

She says, “Saffron Beach is certainly a nice one to progress with, but we also have some other older horses in the yard that we are looking forward to getting going again.

“Albadri (Ire) has a Saudi Derby entry, he’s a Dandy Man (Ire) and I’m looking forward to him, and I’m also looking forward to seeing Ambassadorial running again. I’m aiming at Super Saturday in Dubai with him. He pulled up lame on the July Course at Newmarket but thankfully it wasn’t anything that required surgery. We gave him the rest and the time and he’s been cantering for the last few weeks. I don’t know what the travel restrictions will be like for Dubai but we will aim to have him fit for then.”

She adds, “I still call myself a rookie trainer but I have been training for 14 years now so I guess I’m over that. But it’s a thrill for me to be aiming at a Guineas. Obviously we don’t know what’s going to happen but I don’t think she was just a 2-year-old. At the moment it’s exciting enough for me that she is just having her first canter back.”

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