The Garden Path

Garden Path was a British Thoroughbred racehorse and broodmare who won the classic 2000 Guineas in 1944. She was one of the best British two-year-olds of 1943, when she won one race and was placed in both the Middle Park Stakes and the Cheveley Park Stakes. She was retired from racing at the end of the season and had some success as a broodmare. Garden Path was a big, good-looking brown mare bred by her owner the Edward Stanley, 17th Earl of Derby. Garden Path's successes in 1944 enabled Fairway to win the sires' Championship for the fourth and final time. Many important races were rescheduled to new dates and venues, often at short notice, and all five of the Classics were usually run at Newmarket. Garden Path began her racing career by winning the Tostock Stakes, a maiden race at Newmarket. She was then moved up in class to contest the six furlong Cheveley Park Stakes, the year's most important race for two-year-old fillies in which she finished third to Fair Fame. Garden Path then ran in the Middle Park Stakes over the same course and distance, in which she was matched against some of the season's leading colts and finished third again behind Orestes and Happy Landing. In the Free Handicap, a ranking of the season's best juveniles, Garden Path was given a rating of 123 pounds, eight below the top-rated Orestes and five below Fair Fame, the top filly. On her three-year-old debut, Garden Path won the Chatteris Stakes over one mile. Her connections then took the unusual decision to bypass the fillies classic, the 1000 Guineas, and race her against colts in the 2000 Guineas a day later. No filly had won the race, or even finished in the first three since the victory of Sceptre in 1902.