The 2,000 Guineas and 1,000 Guineas are the first two Classics of the British Flat racing season. Both races are run over the Rowley Mile at Newmarket but, while the former is open to three-year-old colts and fillies, the latter is restricted to three-year-old fillies only. They are currently scheduled for consecutive days over the first weekend in May.
In order to find most successful jockey in the history of either race, we need to leaf through the history book a fair bit, back to a time before Lester Piggott, Pat Eddery or even Sir Gordon Richards. The leading jockey in the history of the 2,000 Guineas was, in fact, James ‘Jem’ Robinson, who was one of the finest riders in the first half of the nineteenth century. Between 1825 and 1848, Robinson won the Newmarket Classic nine times, including four years in a row between 1833 and 1836. All told, he rode 24 British Classic winners, more than anyone else except Frank Buckle (27) and Lester Piggott (30).
The most successful jockey in the history of the 1,000 Guineas – which, for the record, was established five years after the 2,000 Guineas – was another leading light of the nineteenth century, George Fordham. Fordham was perennial champion jockey between 1855 and 1863 and 14 times in all. He won the 1,000 Guineas five times between 1859 and 1869, before retiring from race riding for the first time in 1875 because of failing health due, in no small part, to heavy drinking. However, after a four-year hiatus, he was coaxed out of retirement by influential owner Sir George Chetwynd and went on to win the fillies’ Classic twice more, in 1881 and 1883, before hanging up his boots for the second and final time in 1884.