Horse Racing Tips: Mark Milligan's three best bets on 2000 Guineas Day

13:30 Goodwood - Back Hassaleh @ 6/17.00

It's a belting day of racing on both sides of the Atlantic on Saturday, with Newmarket staging the first UK Classic of the season in the shape of the 2000 Guineas, while over at Churchill Downs we have a wide-open renewal of the Kentucky Derby.

I'll be concentrating on the UK stuff as usual for this column and I'm starting out at Goodwood, which stages a nice supporting card to the main events, with a couple of the races on ITV.

This 6f fillies listed contest doesn't look particularly deep for the level and a few of them - including the favourite Fitzellla - are already beginning to look a tad exposed. One who isn't anywhere near fully exposed is Godolphin's Hassaleh, who only has two runs under her belt and was an impressive winner of a Newmarket maiden just a couple of weeks ago.

At this stage, it's hard to tell if that race had any real depth to it, but the daughter of Night Of Thunder treated her four rivals with contempt, posting very fast closing sectionals to back up the visual impression she created.

She's undoubtedly going to progress with that experience under her belt, and I think it's telling that Charlie Appleby aims her straight for black type rather than going for something a little less competitive.

14:55 Newmarket - Back Rumstar @ 5/16.00

Jonathan Portman has got his string in cracking form and his Rumstar should make a bold bid to retain his Palace House Stakes crown as he gets going for the season.

A solid sprint handicapper who made the leap to listed winner on his final 2024 start, Rumstar had a real breakthrough year in 2025, including when taking this contest on his seasonal debut, posting a career-best effort in the process. Effectively on the wrong part of the track in the King Charles III at Royal Ascot in June, Rumstar quickly put that behind him with another fine success in the Coral Charge on his next start.

His season rather tailed off after that but a freshening over the winter should have done him the world of good and his trainer's current strike-rate is making people sit up and take notice.

Asfoora, who hails from Australia but is currently being prepared for another tilt at Royal Ascot by Lemos De Sousa, makes her seasonal reappearance here too, but she might not be fully cranked on her return from 209 days off and doesn't make all that much appeal at current prices.

15:35 Newmarket - Back King's Trail @ 7/18.00

The general consensus is that this year's 2000 Guineas perhaps lacks the class of a typical renewal but it's no less competitive for it and cases can be made for plenty of the 15 runners.

George Boughey's unbeaten Bow Echo just about sets the standard having done nothing wrong in his juvenile season, and it would be a fine training performance from his young handler were he to win this without a prep under his belt. Physically however, Bow Echo isn't the most imposing and it would be no surprise if one or two of these were to improve past him as three-year-olds.

Charlie Appleby and Godolphin typically hold a strong hand, with William Buick favouring Distant Storm over unbeaten stablemate King's Trail. I'm not convinced he's got that right, though, and I'm more than happy to row in with James Doyle on the supposed second string.

The stable took this race in 2024 with Notable Speech and King's Trail won the same Kempton novice as that one in March on his seasonal return, with the timefigure backing up what looked a useful effort. King's Trail is open to plenty more progression on just his third start and it could be that Buick is on the wrong one, though I doubt it was an easy call to make for the stable's retained rider.

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