On his first race as a three-year-old Rock Sand won the Bennington Stakes, a minor race at Newmarket's Craven meeting. In the 2000 Guineas on 29 April he started 6/4 favourite in a field of eleven runners, with Sermon on 6/1 and Flotsam on 7/1. Ridden by the American jockey Skeets Martin he tracked Flotsam in the early stages before moving into the lead just after half way and winning easily by one and a half lengths from Flotsam, with Rabelais third. The Sportsman magazine noted that Rock Sand was a rather lazy colt who "does not gallop until he is compelled to".