HEADWAY and James Garfield are both ready for the Group 1 QIPCO 2000 Guineas at Newmarket’s Rowley Mile Racecourse on Saturday, May 5th having recently put the finishing touches to their preparations for the first Classic of the year.

The pair were among the 26 acceptors for the £500,000 one mile event – which heralds the start of the 2018 QIPCO British Champions Series – at yesterday’s (Tuesday’s) scratching stage.

Trained by William Haggas, Headway took part in a seven furlong gallop on the Rowley Mile this morning (Wednesday), ridden by James Doyle. Twice Group 2-placed last year, when second in the Coventry Stakes at Royal Ascot and third in the Gimcrack Stakes at York, Headway has raced once this term, when making up over five lengths in the final furlong to land the Listed Spring Cup at Lingfield on March 3rd.

James Garfield is trained by George Scott and is owned and was bred by Scott’s father-in-law and brother-in-law, Bill and Tim Gredley. He has already done his trainer great credit by landing two prestigious Newbury races - the Group 2 Mill Reef Stakes in September and the Group 3 Greenham Stakes last Saturday.

Scott is only 29 years of age and has held a training licence for little more than two years, in comparison with Aidan O’Brien, who has six candidates for a race that he has already won a record eight times, and Mark Johnston, who is responsible for leading fancy Elarqam, and has been training since 1987.

O’Brien’s team is led by the Group 1 Racing Post Trophy hero, Saxon Warrior, and Gustav Klimt, winner of the Group 2 bet365 Superlative Stakes at Newmarket’s Adnams July Course last July.

The top British challengers for a Classic that has been won by overseas raiders seven times in the last ten years are Masar, easy winner of last week’s major Newmarket trial, the Group 3 bet365 Craven Stakes, and the aforementioned Elarqam, unraced since posting a comfortable success in the Group 3 Tattersalls Stakes on the Rowley Mile last September.

QIPCO 1000 Guineas

Trainer Roger Varian is responsible for Altyn Orda and Madeline, two of the 20 fillies to stand their ground at yesterday’s (Tuesday’s) scratching stage for the Group 1 QIPCO 1000 Guineas, which will be run at Newmarket’s Rowley Mile Racecourse on Sunday, May 6th.

Worth £500,000 in prize money and contested over a straight mile, it will be the 205th renewal of the Classic and is the second leg of the 2018 QIPCO British Champions Series.

Both Varian’s charges are intended runners. Altyn Orda has the strongest form having posted sound efforts in seven furlong Rowley Mile events on each of her last two starts, landing the Group 3 Godolphin Lifetime Care Oh So Sharp Stakes in October and then finishing second in the Group 3 Lanwades Stud Nell Gwyn Stakes a week ago on her return from a six-month absence.

Madeline has not been seen in public since the Breeders’ Cup in November and has yet to win a Pattern Race, but she did win the Listed Rose Bowl Stakes at Newbury last July prior to finishing placed in both the Group 2 Lowther Stakes at York and the Group 1 Juddmonte Cheveley Park Stakes at Newmarket.

Aidan O’Brien will be bidding to win this prestigious event for a third straight year and has a powerful six-strong entry, headed by the dual Group 1 scorer, Happily, and September, who flew home to get within a nose of victory in the Group 1 bet365 Fillies’ Mile over the full Guineas course and distance last October.

Other notable entries are Wild Illusion, successful in France’s top race for juvenile fillies, the Group 1 Prix Marcel Boussac, and the filly that denied September in the bet365 Fillies’ Mile, Laurens.