Are three-year-old fillies eligible to run in the 2,000 Guineas & the Derby?

The simple answer is yes, they are. Although the 2,000 Guineas and the Derby as billed as “colts'” Classics, they are, in fact, open to horses of both sexes, but not geldings.The only proviso is that horses have run at least once and achieved an official handicap rating of 80 or more, or an equivalent level of form, in the eyes of the official handicap. In both cases, fillies receive a 3lb allowance from their male counterparts.

Three-year-old fillies may be eligible to run in the 2,000 Guineas and the Derby but, nowadays, rarely do so. Indeed, the last filly to win the 2,000 Guineas was Garden Path who, in 1944, justified favouritism in a wartime renewal, run on the July Course, rather than the Rowley Mile, at Newmarket. The last filly to win the ‘Derby’ was Fifinella who, in 1916, won a wartime substitute, known as the ‘New Derby Stakes’ also, coincidentally, run on the July Course at Newmarket.

Modern trainers prefer their top-class fillies to pursue the 1,000 Guineas and/or Oaks route, not least because both “fillies'” Classics are restricted to three-year-old fillies only. Notwithstanding funding cuts due to the Covid-19 pandemic, the 1,000 Guineas and 2,000 Guineas are worth exactly the same prize money and, although the premier colts’ Classic, the Derby, offers a purse three times higher than the Oaks, fillies have a much better chance of winning against their own sex.

How many times was Pat Eddery Champion Jockey?

Sadly, Patrick James John ‘Pat’ Eddery succumbed to alcoholism before dying, prematurely, at the age of 63, in November, 2015. However, he enjoyed a long, illustrious career, spread over the course of five decades, during which he rode 4,633 winners in Britain and became Champion Jockey 11 times. Indeed, since 1840, only Nat Flatman, George Fordham, Fred Archer and Sir Gordon Richards have won more jockeys’ titles and only Sir Gordon Richards has ridden more winners.

Born in Newbridge, Co. Kildare on March 18, 1952, Eddery began his riding career as apprentice to Seamus McGrath in 1966, before moving to England and joining Prestbury trainer Herbert ‘Frenchie’ Nicholson the following year. Having finished fourth and second in the apprentices’ table in his second and third full seasons, 1969 and 1970, he finally became Champion apprentice in 1971.

Two years later, he succeeded Duncan Keith as stable jockey to Lambourn trainer Peter Walwyn, in which capacity he would become Champion Jockey four years in a row between 1974 and 1977. During his time with Walwyn, Eddery rode his first three British Classic winners, Polygamy in the Oaks in 1974, Grundy in the Derby in 1975 and Scintillate in the Oaks, again, in 1979.

The following year Eddery left Walwyn to succeed Lester Piggott as stable jockey to Vincent O’Brien at Ballydoyle, Co. Tipperary and, later in his career, rode as retained jockey for Khalid Abdullah and as a freelance jockey. All told he won 14 British Classics and rode at least a hundred winners in Britain every year between 1973 and 2001, except 1982, when he was Champion Jockey in Ireland.

Which horse won the inaugural Cheltenham Gold Cup?

By way of clarification, by ‘Cheltenham Gold Cup’ we mean the Cheltenham Gold Cup in its current guise, as a steeplechase, which was first run on March 12, 1924, rather than the three-mile Flat race, which was first run at nearby Cleeve Hill, rather than Prestbury Park, over a century earlier. Nowadays, the Cheltenham Gold Cup is the most prestigious contest in National Hunt racing but, in its early days was overshadowed by other races, notably the National Hunt Chase.

Nevertheless, the inaugural running was covered by British Pathé News, under the title ‘Chasing’s Ascot’, and produced a thrilling finish. The eventual winner, Red Splash, trained by Fred Withington and ridden by Dick Rees, edged his nearest pursuers, Conjuror II and Gerard L by a neck and a head and won the princely sum of £685 for his trouble.

As a footnote, the original Cheltenham Gold Cup presented to winning owner Major Humphrey Wyndham, which consists of nearly a pound-and-a-half of nine carat gold, plated with 18 carat gold, was returned to Cheltenham Raecourse by its previous owner in 2018; since 2019, it has been presented to winning connections as a perpetual trophy.

Who was Fred Archer?

Frederick James ‘Fred’ Archer was a legendary Victorian jockey whose life came to a tragic end, at his own hand, on November 8, 1886, at the age of 29. On the day after the second anniversary of the death of his wife, Nellie Rose, during childbirth, deliriously ill with typhoid fever and ‘in a state of unsound mind’, Archer shot himself with a revolver in his bedroom at Falmouth House, Newmarket.

Neverthless, ‘The Tin Man’, as Archer was known, won the jockeys’ title 13 years running between 1874 and 1886 and still jointly holds the record, alongside Elnathan ‘Nat’ Flatman, for the most consecutive titles. All told, he rode 2,748 winners, including 246 winners in a single season in 1885, thereby setting records that would stand until the inimitable Sir Gordon Richards rose to prominence decades later.

Unusually tall for a jockey at 5’10” – interestingly, the same height as Sir Anthony McCoy – Archer faced a constant battle with his weight in his later years and was forced into a Draconian regime of starvation diet, Turkish baths and purgatives, which ultimately contributed to his demise. Nevertheless, having eventually succeeded the equally ill-fated Tom French as stable jockey to Matthew Dawson in 1875, he went on to win the St. Leger six times, the Derby five times, the 2,000 Guineas and the Oaks four times apiece and the 1,000 Guineas twice, for a total of 21 British Classic winners.

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