Newmarket clerk of the course Andrew Morris is expecting fast ground on the Rowley Mile for the start of the Betfred Guineas Festival.
The John and Thady Gosden-trained Field Of Gold, who won the Craven Stakes over course and distance earlier this month, heads 11 entries for Saturday’s 2000 Guineas before the 1000 Guineas takes place 24 hours later.
“It’s a big weekend, obviously pretty exciting,” Morris said. “It has been a pretty amazing spring, I think today (Thursday) could be the hottest day and break the record for May.
“Pretty much dry since the Craven meeting, 1.5millimetres of rain, so the team have done a great job to water and we put the last application of water on yesterday.
“This morning, we called the ground good and we are looking forward to three great days. A lovely, dry day today and then temperatures do cool off for the weekend but it’s really exciting, it looks a great field for both the 2000 and 1000 Guineas so looking forward to it.”
The recent dry spell of weather has provided Morris with some challenges in maintaining conditions.
He added: “It has been hard work (to maintain the ground), I suppose in some ways, having a settled forecast is easier than having an unsettled forecast where you never know where the rain will come or if it’s not going to come – having a settled, dry period does allow you to have a degree of certainty.
“But I guess every year is a challenge isn’t it? In different ways.
“We called the ground good this morning, but that’s anticipating a warm, dry day today.
“We saw at the Craven how the Rowley Mile really dries quickly so we’d anticipate tomorrow we’ll be racing on ground that is good, good to firm, combination of the two or even just good to firm, and we think that will stay like that for the three days.”