Ireland: Precise outsteps True Love in 1000 Guineas
One might, focusing solely on classic races for 3-year-old fillies in England and Ireland this spring, wonder who, exactly, is the top rider for trainer Aidan O’Brien.
In the 1000 Guineas on May 3 at Newmarket, it was Wayne Lordan riding 5-1 chance True Love to victory, as Ryan Moore, stable jockey for O’Brien and his globally powerful owners since 2015, steered 9-5 favorite Precise to a seventh-place finish.
Moore switched to True Love for the Irish 1000 Guineas on Sunday at The Curragh, and True Love on the American tote went off a 2-5 favorite. Lordan moved to 9-2 shot Precise, who unleashed a furious final furlong-and-a-half, whizzing past True Love to win by 2 1/2 lengths.
O’Brien had said all along that Precise ($11.90) scraped into the Guineas at Newmarket barely ready for her first start since October, and he forecast serious second-out improvement for Precise, winner of the Group 1 Fillies Mile in her final start at age 2 and scratched sick as the favorite for the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies.
Beaten about five lengths by True Love over Newmarket’s straight course, Precise bridged that gap and more Sunday in Ireland’s first fillies’ classic of the season, run around one gentle bend that comes up just after the start.
By Starspangledbanner out of Way to My Heart, by Galileo, Precise broke awkwardly, and as the field of 11 split into two groups, wound up near the rear of the stand’s side pack. True Love, leaving from Post 1, got away alertly and took up a lovely position, hugging the running rail just behind pacesetting Abashiri.
Moore came off the fence with a quarter-mile remaining and True Love eased forward, but by the time True Love took Abishiri’s measure at the furlong grounds, she already was a beaten horse.
Playing his hand about the same time as Moore, Lordan brought Precise off cover and to the far outside, and after gathering herself for about 50 yards, Precise produced a huge turn of foot, and at the eighth pole, she already had taken the measure of the two in front of her. Coming home on her left lead, Precise edged toward the rail, but by then she had the Irish 1000 Guineas well in hand.
True Love never really put away Abishiri, finishing second by a half-length.
O’Brien, who won his 12th Irish 1000 Guineas, did not rule out bringing Precise back in two weeks’ time for the Oaks at Epsom Downs. He already has Amelia Earhart pointed to that 1 1/2-mile contest after her win in the Chester Oaks – under Ryan Moore. More important internal jockey decisions could lie close at hand.
Almaqam upsets Tatteralls Gold Cup; Minnie Hauk fifth
Under a heady ride from Kieran Shoemark, Almaqam scored his first Group 1 win in the Tattersalls Gold Cup, the race immediately preceding the Irish 1000 Guineas.
Wide and at the rear of a seven-runner field in the 1 5/16-mile contest, Almaqam was given his head by Shoemark about a furlong into the race, moving quickly from sixth to third. That put him in a perfect position to strike when pacesetter Edward Hamilton folded his tent with 2 1/2 furlongs remaining, leaving Bay City Roller the only horse standing before Almaqam. He did not stand firmly, either, Almaqam surging past to win by two lengths.
Ray Dawson aboard Saddadd, second choice at 9-1 on the American tote, chose a different tactic, sitting last and trying to follow the moves of 1-5 favorite Minnie Hauk, the problem being Minnie Hauk never took him anywhere. Saddadd made mild late progress to finish third, while Minnie Hauk, narrowly beaten in the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe last fall, checked in an icy fifth, beaten about nine lengths. Fifth in the Breeders’ Cup Turf, Minnie Hauk raced Sunday only 20 days after capturing the Group 2 Mooresbridge Stakes.
Ed Walker trains Almaqam ($16.80), a 5-year-old by Lope de Vega out of Talmada, by Cape Cross.
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