Ireland: O'Brien sweeps top two spots in Irish 1,000 Guineas
Trainer Aidan O’Brien swept the top two placings in the Irish 1,000 Guineas on Sunday at The Curragh in Ireland, one day after Jim Bolger sent out the one-two finishers in the Irish 2,000 Guineas.
Bolger won Saturday’s Classic with Mac Swiney, who led from the start and held off stablemate Poetic Flare. In Sunday’s race, Empress Josephine surged late to nip Joan of Arc, giving O’Brien a ninth win in the Irish 1,000 Guineas.
Races both days were run under testing conditions, Sunday in particular. Going for the 1,000 Guineas was labeled “heavy” and it took Empress Josephine a remarkably slow 1:47.92 to complete the one-mile distance, run around one gentle right-handed bend.
Joan of Arc, who emerged as a Classic hope this spring, raced prominently under Ryan Moore and got the best of pacesetting No Speak Alexander in the final furlong, but the two leaders hardly were finishing fast, and Empress Josephine, who had come under a ride a long way from home, surged on the outside to get up by a nose under Seamie Heffernan. Favored Pretty Gorgeous, making her first start at 3, had striking position a quarter-mile from the finish but could not pick up on the sodden course, checking in seventh.
Empress Josephine, who won for the second time in four starts, is by Galileo out of Lillie Langtry, by Danehill Dancer, making her a full sister to Minding, a multiple Group 1 winner.
Saturday’s Irish 2,000 Guineas probably will have greater impact through the summer 2021 racing season, since both Bolger colts look legitimate, and Mac Swiney was winning at a distance likely short of his best trip. Winner of the Group 1 Vertem Futurity Trophy over a straight mile at Doncaster in his 2020 finale, Mac Swiney performed below that form starting his 3-year-old season with a fourth-place finish May 9 in the Derby Trial Stakes at Leopardstown, a race won handily by leading Derby hope Bolshoi Ballet, trained by O’Brien. Mac Swiney came out of that start with nasal discharge, a suggestion his performance had been compromised, and he took a significant forward step Sunday turning back multiple challenges through the final quarter-mile to come home a nose better than Poetic Flare.
Rory Cleary rode the winner to the most important success of his career, Mac Swiney clocking 1:41.32 over a course labeled soft-to-heavy. Van Gogh, who made a bid for the lead before losing momentum, checked in third, with tepid favorite Lucky Vega fourth without threatening and Wembley, a 9-2 shot overseas, apparently hating the ground, finishing last of 11 while never coming close to contention.
This was the third Guineas race in 22 days for Poetic Flare, who won the English 2,000 Guineas at Newmarket on May 1 before finishing a mildly troubled sixth in the French 2,000 Guineas just last weekend. Poetic Flare is a candidate for the St. James’s Palace Stakes over a turning mile at Royal Ascot, while Bolger has designs on the Derby with Mac Swiney. Bolger bred both colts, who race bearing the colors of his wife, Jackie Bolger. Kevin Manning, married to the Bolger's daughter Una, is Poetic Flare’s regular rider.
Mac Swiney is by New Approach, whom Bolger trained to win the 2008 Derby, and out of Halla Na Saoire, by Teofilo, the latter a multiple Group 1 winner bred and trained by Bolger.
*** Helvic Dream got up by a nose over Broome in the Tattersalls Gold Cup, the supporting feature Sunday at The Curragh. The race is a Group 1 but the winner, an 8-1 shot, is far from established as a Group 1 performer, scoring his first victory above the Group 3 level. Broome required 2:21.11 to complete the 1 5/16 miles over an exhausting course officially termed soft-to-heavy for this race.
*** Love, the star filly who had been set to make her 4-year-old debut in the Tattersalls Gold Cup, now is being pointed to the Prince of Wales Stakes at Royal Ascot, trainer Aidan O’Brien told overseas media this weekend. O’Brien withdrew Love from the Tattersalls Gold Cup earlier this week because of the heavy ground.