1,000 Guineas

Run over a mile, on the older of the two racecourses at Newmarket, the historic Rowley Mile, the 1,000 Guineas is the second British Classic of the season and the first to be restricted to three-year-old fillies. The race forms the highlight of the third and final day of the Guineas Festival, held annually in late April or early May.

The 1,000 Guineas was established by the Jockey Club in 1814, making it the most recent of the five British Classics after the St. Leger (1776), Oaks (1779), Derby (1780) and 2,000 Guineas (1809). Indeed, along with the Oaks and the St. Leger, the 1,000 Guineas forms the so-called ‘Fillies’ Triple Crown’, although the last filly to win all three races was Oh So Sharp in 1985.

The 1,000 Guineas takes it name from the original prize money, a guinea being a gold coin worth 21 shillings, or the equivalent of £1.05 in decimal currency. Taking into account inflation, alone, the original prize money would be worth £73,249.74 by modern standards, according to the Bank of England. However, the 2026 renewal of the 1,000 Guineas is worth £525,000 in total prize money, so it would be fair to say that the first fillies’ Classic has fared well in that respect.

In terms of records, the so-called ‘Emperor of Trainers’, Robert Robson, remains the leading trainer in the history of the 1,000 Guineas, having saddled nine winners between 1818 and 1827, while Victorian superstar George ‘The Demon’ Fordham remains the leading jockey, having ridden seven winners between 1859 and 1883. The wide, galloping nature of the Rowley Mile Course at Newmarket means that the 1,000 Guineas has a safety limit of 30 runners, but the largest field ever assembled was in 1926, when Pillion belied odds of 25/1 to beat 28 rivals.

The longest-priced winner in the history of the 1,000 Guineas, though, was Billesdon Brook, trained by Richard Hannon, who was sent off a 66/1 rank outsider in 2018. Conversely, the shortest-priced winner was the undefeated Crucifix, trained by John Barham Day, who justified prohibitive odds of 1/10 in 1840.