There’s a big weekend of Horse Racing ahead, and here’s how to follow all the action from the Guineas and the Kentucky Derby with confirmed TV channels, start times and previews…
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2,000 Guineas
When: Saturday May 4th, 15:35
Where: Rowley Mile, Newmarket
How:
UK – ITV 1
Ireland – Virgin Media One
Australia – Sky Racing 1
Is City of Troy the great horse that Aidan O’Brien and Coolmore team think he is? The horse won the Dewhurst Stakes at Newmarket last autumn, normally the best pointer to this race. Trainer O’Brien has certainly a lot of fantastic horses to compare him with including Galileo, Rock of Gibraltar and Camelot. Last year’s star from Coolmore was Auguste Rodin, who was favourite for this race and trailed in twelfth. He then went on to win the English and Irish Derbies. City of Troy is odds-on here and O’Brien is the winning most trainer of the race with 10 wins. Charlie Appleby’s Notable Speech looks to have the best chance to provide an upset with three runs and wins already this year in Dubai, as long as he can cope coming from the Middle East heat to an unseasonably East Anglian cold. Aidan O’Brien’s second string Henry Longfellow, if he runs, is also not without a chance after winning the Group 1 National Stakes at the Curragh last year.
The Kentucky Derby
When: Saturday May 4th, 23:55
Where: Churchill Downs
How:
UK – Sky Racing
US – NBC/Peacock
The first race of the US Triple Crown takes place in Louisville, Kentucky at Churchill Downs. Fierceness, trained by Todd Pletcher and ridden by John Velazquez, is a firm favourite. That combination won the race in 2107 with Always Dreaming. The horse is drawn in stall 17, a stall from which no horse has ever won the Derby. Can Fierceness beat the hoodoo? Frankie Dettori, trying his luck in the US for his final season, has got a mount, Society Man, but it is a 50/1 outsider.
1,000 Guineas
When: Sunday May 5th, 15:40
Where: Rowley Mile, Newmarket
How:
UK – ITV 4
Ireland – Virgin Media One
Australia – Sky Racing 1
Aidan O’Brien has another major fancy in the second English Classic of the season, this one for fillies in Ylang Ylang. She won the Fillies Mile here last October, redeeming herself after finishing last in the Moyglare Stakes, the top Irish 2-year-old race. The winner of that race was English trainer Karl Burke’s Fallen Angel, who is favourite here. More open than the 2000 Guineas, I think that Andrew Balding’s See The Fire, ridden by Oisin Murphy, is the best of the longer priced fillies.
