Alpha Centauri upsets Irish 1,000 Guineas
Alpha Centauri, winless in her first three career starts in group stakes, scored a 12-1 upset in Sunday’s Group 1 Irish 1,000 Guineas for 3-year-old fillies at the Curragh.
Alpha Centauri finished 1 3/4 lengths in front of Could It Be Love, a 33-1 outsider who was a pacesetter for trainer Aidan O’Brien’s four-horse string in the $465,200 race. The O’Brien-trained Happily, the 5-4 favorite, finished third, 2 1/2 lengths behind the surprise winner.
Ridden by Colm O’Donoghue, Alpha Centauri closed from midpack in the field of 13 to win by 1 3/4 lengths despite drifting out in the final furlong.
Alpha Centauri, by Mastercraftsman, is owned by the Niarchos family and trained by Jessica Harrington, who is better known for her success in steeplechases, notably a win in the 2017 Cheltenham Gold Cup in England with Sizing John.
Harrington said Alpha Centauri will be pointed to the Group 1 Coronation Stakes for 3-year-old fillies at a mile at Royal Ascot on June 22.
Alpha Centauri has won 3 of 6 starts. Last June, Alpha Centauri was second by a neck in the Group 3 Albany Stakes at six furlongs at Royal Ascot and later was fifth behind Happily in the Group 1 Moyglare Stud Stakes at the Curragh in September.
On April 14, Alpha Centauri was 10th in the Group 3 Irish 1,000 Guineas Trial at Leopardstown in her first start of the year.
Earlier on Sunday, the O’Brien-trained Lancaster Bomber (10-3) won his first Group 1 race in the $348,900 Tattersalls Gold Cup for older horses at 1 5/16 miles on turf. Lancaster Bomber, second in the 2017 Breeders’ Cup Mile at Del Mar last November, led throughout under jockey Seamie Heffernan and won by two lengths over the O’Brien-trained Cliffs of Moher, who was 7-4.
Defoe, the 5-4 favorite, finished third, beaten 3 1/2 lengths.
Lancaster Bomber, a 4-year-old colt by War Front, was third behind stablemate Rhododendron in the Group 1 Lockinge Stakes at Newbury on May 19.
Owned by the Coolmoore team of Michael Tabor, Derrick Smith, and Susan Magnier, Lancaster Bomber has won 2 of 18 starts. The win on Sunday ended a 15-race losing streak and was Lancaster Bomber’s 14th appearance in a Group 1 or Grade 1 race.
Lancaster Bomber has had three starts in North America, finishing second in the Grade 1 BC Juvenile Turf at Santa Anita in 2016 and second in the Grade 1 Woodbine Mile last September.
O’Brien said after Sunday’s race that Lancaster Bomber will be considered for two Group 1 races at Royal Ascot – the $798,000 Queen Anne Stakes at a mile on June 19 or the $997,500 Prince of Wales’s Stakes at 1 1/4 miles on June 20.
