Kameko hands Pinatubo his first defeat in the 2000 Guineas

In an 11-1 upset on the U.S. tote, Kameko drove down the center of the Newmarket turf course Saturday to win the English 2000 Guineas (G1).

A son of Kitten’s Joy bred by Kentucky's Calumet Farm, the 3-year-old Andrew Balding trainee improved to 3-for-5 by outlasting runner-up Wichita and third-place Pinatubo, an odds-on favorite who had never lost before Saturday.

Oisin Murphy rode the winner for Qatar Racing Limited.

"He hardly blew a candle out there for a horse that's just won a championship race," Murphy said. "He must have a tremendous amount of ability."

Murphy added that the next of England's classics, the July 4 Epsom Derby (G1), "will have to come into the equation," saying that "before today, we viewed him as a mile-and-a-quarter horse."

The 2000 Guineas was run at a mile. The Derby steps horses up to 12 furlongs and the St Leger Stakes, runs in September at Donacaster going 1 3/4 miles. The English Triple Crown sweep remains a feat rarely attempted.

A winner on debut, Kameko finished his juvenile season with a victory in the Vertem Futurity Trophy Stakes (G1) at Newcastle. He, as with others in Saturday’s field, were coming off a layoff in the initial stages of flat racing in England after the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic.