Ireland: O'Brien without a standout in Moyglare Stud Stakes

The most surprising thing about Sunday’s Moyglare Stud Stakes at The Curragh in Ireland is the fact trainer Aidan O’Brien doesn’t have an obviously prime contender in the Group 1 race for 2-year-old fillies. O’Brien has won the Moyglare Stud the last two years with Maybe in 2011 and Misty for Me in 2010 and has sent out the winner in six of the last 12 editions, but his two entrants this summer, Snow Queen and Magical Dream, are accorded no more than outsiders’ chances in a field of 13 entered for the seven-furlong race.

The Moyglare Stud is a Breeders’ Cup Challenge race, meaning its winner gets an automatic fees-paid berth into the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies Turf in addition to travel expenses to the race. The Moyglare Stud has been a Win and You’re In race since 2009, but the winner has yet to come for its associated Breeders’ Cup race.

Sunday’s race includes five of the six horses from the Group 2 Debutante Stakes, another seven-furlong race that was contested Aug. 12 at The Curragh. Chief among that quintet are the Debutante’s one-two finishers, My Special Js and Harasiya. Those two fillies were separated by a neck in the Debutante, while Harasiya edged My Special Js when the pair met earlier this summer in the Silver Flash Stakes.

Two more fillies rate as contenders. Sendmylovetorose has started her career with three wins, two in group stakes, but has yet to race beyond six furlongs. Slightly more appealing is Sky Lantern, who won her first two races before checking in second in two English seven-furlong group races.

◗ The unbeaten Australian star sprinter Black Caviar has returned to light training, and a decision on whether she will race again this year or be retired as a broodmare could be reached by the end of September. Black Caviar came out of her narrow win in the Diamond Jubilee Stakes at Ascot with muscle tears, her connections reported, but has regained her soundness and, trainer Peter Moody said this week, “looks superb.”