One of the highlights of the British Flat racing season, the Newmarket Guineas Festival is a three-day meeting, staged over the first weekend in May on the Rowley Mile at Newmarket Racecourse in Suffolk, East Anglia. As the name suggests, the meeting is headlined by the first two Classics of the season, the 2,000 Guineas on the Saturday and the 1,000 Guineas on the Sunday. Both Classics are run over a mile, but the 2,000 Guineas, which is nowadays worth £525,000 in total prize money, is officially open to three-year-old colts and fillies (although rarely contested by the latter in recent times), while the 1,000 Guineas, which is worth £500,000, is restricted to three-year-old fillies.
Highlights of the first day of the Guineas Festival, known as ‘Guineas Friday’, include the Newmarket Stakes and King Charles II Stakes, both Listed level contests, run over ten and seven furlongs, and open to three-year-old colts and geldings and three-year-olds of both sexes, respectively. The feature race, though, is the Group 2 Jockey Club Stakes, run over a mile and a half and open to horses aged four years and upwards.
The first Classic of the season aside, the second day, ‘2,000 Guineas Day’, also features the Group 3 Palace House Stakes, run over five furlongs and open to horses aged three years and upwards, which serves as an appetiser for the main event. Likewise, on the third and final day, ‘1,000 Guineas Day’, the feature race is supplemented by the Listed Pretty Polly Stakes, for three-year-old fillies over a mile and a quarter, and the Group 2 Dahlia Stakes, for fillies and mares aged four years and upwards over nine furlongs. All told, the Newmarket Guineas Festival offers three days of exceptional racing action, with a total of 23 races, seven on the Friday, nine on the Saturday and another seven on the Sunday.