With Field of Gold favourite for Saturday's 2000 Guineas, John Ingles looks at his trainer's record in the only English classic he's yet to win.
John Gosden enjoyed his first English classic success in 1996 when Shantou took the St Leger, a race Gosden has now won five times.
The first of his two Derby winners followed a year later when Benny The Dip won at Epsom, and it was another three years before Lahan became Gosden’s only winner to date of the 1000 Guineas. It took him until 2014 to win the Oaks for the first time, with Taghrooda, but he has won another three editions since, with Soul Sister becoming his most recent classic winner in the 2023 Oaks, bringing his total of English classics to twelve.
That still leaves the 2000 Guineas, though Field of Gold is only 2/1 to complete a full set of English classics for his trainer at Newmarket on Saturday following his convincing victory in the Craven Stakes (replay below). The 2000 Guineas is perhaps a surprising omission so far from the CV of the six-times champion trainer, though a closer look at Gosden’s 2000 Guineas record shows that he’s far from being a regular participant in the race and has had only a handful of colts with genuine chances since his first runner in 1990.
Unlimited Replays
of all UK and Irish races with our Race Replays
Discover Sporting Life Plus Benefits
Field of Dreams will be Gosden’s first 2000 Guineas runner since son Thady joined him as joint licence-holder at Clarehaven and the stable’s first runner in the race for six years; Kick On (16/1) and Azano (66/1) finished seventh and eleventh respectively in 2019. Gosden has been represented in only eleven editions of the 2000 Guineas all told and Field of Dreams will be only his eighth runner this century.
Gosden’s very first 2000 Guineas runner Anshan was sent off the 6/1 second favourite in 1990 having finished third in the Dewhurst before reappearing with victory under top weight in the Free Handicap. Ridden by Walter Swinburn in the colours of Sheikh Mohammed, Anshan took the lead at one stage but ultimately had to settle for third behind Tirol and favourite Machiavellian.
None of Gosden’s five remaining 2000 Guineas runners during the 1990s fared as well as Anshan. Three of them had prep runs in the Craven, and one of them, Emperor Jones in 1993, won it, but his all-out short-head win at 14/1 didn’t impress bookmakers anything like as much as the stable’s latest Craven winner and, sent off at 20/1 for the Guineas, he could finish only eighth.
Gosden’s first two runners in the 2000 Guineas this century also ran in the Craven, both suffering narrow defeats before taking their chance at single-figure odds in the Guineas. Iceman had won the Coventry at two before making the frame in the Champagne, Middle Park and Dewhurst, and he ran a very promising trial in the 2005 Craven but had no luck in running and was beaten into fourth in a blanket finish. Sent off at 7/1 for the Guineas, he finished down the field after sustaining an injury which put him out of action for the rest of the year.
Three years later, Raven’s Pass went closer still in the Craven, going down by a short head to Twice Over, having finished third to New Approach in the Dewhurst on his final start at two. That made Raven’s Pass a 4/1 shot in another meeting with New Approach in the Guineas but things didn’t go his way from a high draw, and he wound up only fourth having had to come from last place, with the favourite being edged out by Henrythenavigator.
Gosden’s next 2000 Guineas contender Fencing was an outsider in 2012 but he was followed two years later by one with first-rate claims. Kingman took an unbeaten record into the 2014 2000 Guineas, having won all three of his starts over seven furlongs, including a deeply impressive trial in the Greenham Stakes which made him the 6/4 favourite at Newmarket. But on his first try at a mile, Kingman couldn’t sustain the burst of speed that had taken him to the front on the uphill run to the line and was beaten half a length by Night of Thunder whom he’d beaten comprehensively into second at Newbury. That, though, was to prove the only defeat of Kingman’s career, later proving himself a top-class miler with four Group 1 wins.
Roaring Lion would have doubtless been sent off at shorter odds for his 2000 Guineas bid in 2018 had he not suffered a heavy odds-on defeat in the Craven beforehand when third to future Derby winner Masar who hacked up by nine lengths. After all, Roaring Lion had shown very smart form at two, winning the Royal Lodge Stakes before being beaten a neck by Saxon Warrior in the Futurity Trophy. He got closer to that form in the 2000 Guineas but couldn’t land a blow in fifth behind Saxon Warrior again, with Masar third.
A couple of Gosden’s other colts need mentioning who might have been 2000 Guineas contenders in different circumstances but didn’t contest the race. Too Darn Hot had been the long-standing ante-post favourite for the 2000 Guineas in 2019 after an unbeaten two-year-old campaign but an injury to a splint bone caused him to miss his intended prep run in the Greenham which in turn ruled him out of the Guineas.
A year later, the classic calendar was turned upside down as a result of the pandemic. Palace Pier had won both his starts at two but on the same day that the 2000 Guineas was run (June 6th), he kept his unbeaten record when reappearing with an impressive win in a handicap at Newcastle. A fortnight later, he beat the placed horses from the Guineas, Pinatubo and Wichita, in the St James’s Palace Stakes which proved to be the start of his top-class miling career.
Gosden’s latest 2000 Guineas hope Field of Gold won the Solario Stakes at two, a race his trainer has now won a record seven times, including with two of his colts who made the frame in the Guineas, Raven’s Pass and Kingman, as well as Too Darn Hot.
Field of Gold was given a rating of 121p for his clear-cut win in the Craven, which is slightly below the ratings Raven’s Pass (125p) and Kingman (123p) took into the Guineas, though in the context of this year’s race that makes him a serious rival to last season’s leading two-year-old Shadow of Light (120) and he heads Timeform's ratings. Besides completing a full house of classics for John Gosden, victory for Field of Gold in the 2000 Guineas would also be significant for his sire Kingman (also the sire of Palace Pier) given his own near-miss in the race.
More from Sporting Life
Safer gambling
We are committed in our support of safer gambling. Recommended bets are advised to over-18s and we strongly encourage readers to wager only what they can afford to lose.
If you are concerned about your gambling, please call the National Gambling Helpline / GamCare on 0808 8020 133.
Further support and information can be found at begambleaware.org and gamblingtherapy.org.