Sean Levey ready for a very different race day without fans at 2000 Guineas as he looks to upset Pinatubo

Levey rides Mums Tipple on Saturday.
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Jockey Sean Levey says the reality of racing without fans will hit home during this weekend’s Guineas meeting at Newmarket.

Horse racing became the first major UK sport to return from its coronavirus shutdown when it restarted at Newcastle on Monday, and meetings have been held behind-closed-doors throughout the week at other tracks, including Kempton and Yarmouth.

However, while such midweek cards tend not to bring in significant crowds anyway, Newmarket would usually be packed out for the first Classics of the season, which have been rescheduled for this weekend having been pushed back from their original date in early May.

The meeting has been particularly kind to Levey in recent years, who finished second in the 2000 Guineas last season having landed the biggest success of his career in the 1000 Guineas on 66/1-shot Billesdon Brook in 2018, and he admits it will not be quite the same.

Horse racing returns after coronavirus shutdown

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“The atmosphere and Group Ones go hand-in-hand,” he told Standard Sport. “That’s when you know you’re in a Group One, the crowd is there and it hits home when you’re cantering down to the start – that you’re in a Group One and it’s a big day.

“Obviously, we’re not going to have that this time and that’s probably when it’s going to sink in for a lot of us, going down to the start.”

Levey rides Mums Tipple in Saturday’s 2000 Guineas, a horse who looked a potential star when winning a sales race by an outrageous 11 lengths at York in August, only to disappoint when stepped up in class for the Juddmonte at Newmarket.

The Richard Hannon-trained colt faces a tough task, up against red-hot favourite Pinatubo, who finished last season as the highest-rated juvenile in Europe this century, and Coventry-winner Arizona.

“He’s been working really well at home and he deserves to take his chance in the Guineas,” Levey said.

“He was a lightly raced horse last year and obviously coming into a Guineas you’ve got all the major two-year-old’s like Pinatubo and Arizona that had a better portfolio going in, horses we’ve seen at every big meeting, every big race. They immediately jump to the forefront of your mind when you think of the Guineas so in that sense he’s probably a forgotten horse.

“But when you think of Mums Tipple, the first thing you do remember is the way he ran in York in that sales race and on the back of that you’d say he deserves a go at it.”

The QIPCO 2000 Guineas at Newmarket Racecourse is the second leg of this year’s QIPCO British Champions Series. For more info go to britishchampionsseries.com

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