Fallen Angel rebounds with Irish 1000 Guineas victory

Fallen Angel, just eighth as the favorite earlier this month in the 1000 Guineas at Newmarket, rebounded in smashing fashion Sunday at The Curragh, where she won the Irish 1000 Guineas by 2 3/4 lengths.

Fallen Angel dropped her head and could not have been more relaxed for jockey Daniel Tudhope, racing near the lead during the early and middle stages of the Guineas, a one-mile contest around one gentle right-handed bend. Tudhope put Fallen Angel into the game with a little more than a quarter-mile to race and got an immediate, decisive response. Fallen Angel quickly opened a lead that no rival came close to bridging, showing that she had, indeed, trained on from a Group 1-winning 2-year-old season.

Neither Tudhope nor trainer Karl Burke could quite understand Fallen Angel’s disappointing showing in her 3-year-old debut. Perhaps the ground at Newmarket was quicker than ideal, while The Curragh, on a rainy Sunday, came up good-to-yielding.

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A Lilac Rolla lost for the first time in four starts but finished a solid second while tackling much stronger competition than she had beaten in two starts last year and a Group 3 to begin her 3-year-old campaign. Trained by Paddy Twomey, A Lilac Rolla was two lengths better than Opera Singer, who trainer Aidan O’Brien said had not been in serious training long enough this spring to show anything close to her best.

Opera Singer will demonstrate how’s far she’s progressed in the Coronation Stakes, a one-mile race at Royal Ascot next month, but is unlikely to meet Fallen Angel there. Burke, who won the German 1000 Guineas with Darnation earlier Sunday, said Fallen Angel is a likely runner in the Prix de Diane, the French Oaks. Fallen Angel there will stretch from one-mile races to 1 5/16 miles, though Burke expressed confidence the filly will stay. Fallen Angel is by Too Darn Hot out of Agnes Stewart, by Lawman, and on Sunday, she got her Guineas.

Tattersalls Gold Cup

Auguste Rodin won the Derby at Epsom last year, finishing more than five lengths in front of third-place White Birch, but Sunday at The Curragh White Birch was the superior horse. Following Auguste Rodin through the middle portion of the race, White Birch and jockey Colin Keane pounced on him before the furlong grounds, swept past, and went on to a three-length win in the Group 1 Tattersalls Gold Cup.

White Bridge won his first Group 1 while extending his 2024 winning streak to three, the Gold Cup following a decisive score in the Group 2 Mooresbridge Stakes. That 1 1/8-mile race had White Birch set for a peak in the 1 5/16-mile Gold Cup, a major triumph for the lesser-known Irish trainer John Joseph Murphy.

Keane rode White Birch in the Derby but didn’t pilot him in a race again until this year. Aboard for all three of White Birch’s races this season, Keane said the colt has grown into a thoroughly professional and effective horse as a 4-year-old. Auguste Rodin could do nothing to contain him, at least on a good-to-yielding course softer than Auguste Rodin prefers but very much to White Birch’s liking.

August Rodin at least rebounded from a last-place finish March 30 in the Sheema Classic at Meydan, and he finished three lengths better than third-place Crypto Man. The top two could meet at Royal Ascot in the Prince of Wales Stakes.

White Birch is by Ulysses out of Diagnostic, like Dutch Art. Not quite ready to fulfill his potential during his classic season, White Birch is flowering at 4.

Prix d’Ispahan

Mqse De Sevigne won a head bob over Horizon Dore and with it the Group 1 Prix d’Ispahan Sunday at Longchamp Racecourse in France.

The 5-year-old mare did not win at the Group 1 level until her 11th start; now she has won three Group 1s in her last five outings. Last summer, her top-level scores came at one mile and 1 1/4 miles, and she won the Ispahan over 1 1/8 miles – a versatile horse indeed. By year’s end, her connections hope the mare can get 1 1/2 miles, as the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe is her long-term goal and likely the final start of her career. Mqse De Sevigne was racing for the second time this season and isn’t expected to start again until August.

She was far from dominant in the Ispahan, and it was unclear in live action whether she or Horizon Dore got their nose down at the right moment. Haya Zark, who led for much of the race, finished third, while Blue Rose Cen was fifth in her first start since capturing the Group 1 Prix de l’Opera in October.

Trained by Andre Fabre, Mqse De Sevigne is by Siyouni out of Penne, by Sevres Rose. She was ridden Sunday by Alexis Pouchine, winning jockey in the three Group 1s run so far this year.

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