Belardo, Hootenanny Among Guineas Nominees
Image:
Description:
Belardo, winner of the 2014 Dubai Dewhurst (Eng-I), and United States-based Hootenanny, victorious in the 2014 Breeders' Cup Juvenile Turf (gr. IT), are among 82 nominees to the QIPCO Two Thousand Guineas (Eng-I) at Newmarket.
England's first classic of the year, the Guineas is set to run on the straight Rowley Mile May 2.
Belardo won three of five starts last season for trainer Roger Varian, including his two-length triumph after squeezing between rivals late in the Oct. 17 Dewhurst at Newmarket. That race has proved to be the best signpost for Guineas glory, and Godolphin bought a majority interest from in the game son of Lope de Vega afterward from owner Prince Faisal.
Coolmore and partners' Hootenanny was runner-up to The Wow Signal in the Prix Morny (Fr-I) in France last August and captured of the Breeders' Cup Juvenile Turf Oct. 31 at Santa Anita Park next time out for trainer Wesley Ward. The son of Quality Road has a 3-1-1 record from five career starts, including the Windsor Castle Stakes last June at Royal Ascot.
Other top nominees include group I winners Charming Thought and Elm Park and multiple group winner Ivawood.
Godolphin's Charming Thought, a son of Oasis Dream, beat the Carmichael Jennings' previous group II winner Ivawood, a son of Zebeedee, a nose in the Vision .AE Middle Park Stakes (Eng-I), also on Dewhurst day at Newmarket. Both will be stepping up in distance from six furlongs should they contest the Two Thousand Guineas.
In back-to-back victories, trainer Andrew Balding's Elm Park captured the Juddmonte Royal Lodge Stakes (Eng-II) in September at Newmarket's Rowley Mile and the one-mile Racing Post Trophy (Eng-I) Oct. 25 at Doncaster. Balding said Qatar Racing's Elm Park, a son of Phoenix Reach, will train up to the Guineas.
Six-time Guineas winner Aidan O'Brien is represented by 10 entries, topped by Gleneagles, the Cartier Award winner as Europe's champion 2-year-old male of 2014. A Galileo colt, Gleneagles won the National Stakes (Ire-I) last September at the Curragh. He was disqualified from his fifth consecutive win when French racing officials placed him third in the subsequent Prix Jean-Luc Lagardere (Fr-I) for interference.
The beneficiary of that Lagardere disqualification, Juddmonte's homebred Mizzen Mast colt Full Mast, also is nominated to the Guineas.