Lucida will go as favorite in English 1000 Guineas

The list of top contenders for Sunday’s $620,330 English 1000 Guineas for 3-year-old fillies at Newmarket changed drastically when final declarations were made Friday.

Found, the longtime future-book favorite who was as low as 7-2 in recent betting, was not among the 13 fillies entered for the one-mile turf race. In April, trainer Aidan O’Brien said Found was fighting an elevated temperature and her chances of making the race were in doubt.

As a result, Lucida inherited the role of favorite at 4-1 even though she has not started since finishing fifth in the Group 1 Fillies’ Mile at Newmarket last October. By Shamardal, Lucida is owned by the Maktoum family’s Godolphin racing and is trained by Jim Bolger. Kevin Manning has the mount in the Group 1 1000 Guineas.

There are other familiar names in the entries. Osaila, third to Lady Eli in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies Turf at Santa Anita last October, will be ridden by Frankie Dettori. Trained by Richard Hannon, Osaila, by Danehill Dancer, won her 2015 debut in the Grade 3 Nell Gwynn Stakes at Newmarket on April 15.

O’Brien has one runner in Quality, a Group 3 winner in Ireland last year who was eighth in the BC Juvenile Fillies Turf, her most recent start. Trainer Barry Hills starts Fadhayyil, who was second to Lucida in the Group 2 Rockfel Stakes at Newmarket last September.

Cirrus des Aigles eyes Prix Ganay repeat

On Sunday, the remarkable Cirrus des Aigles will have his first start of 2015 in the $335,610 Prix Ganay at Longchamp Racecourse in Paris, the first Group 1 flat race of the year in France.

The 9-year-old Cirrus des Aigles, a winner of 21 of 61 starts, is making his fourth appearance in the Prix Ganay, having finished third in 2011 and having won the race in 2012 and 2014. Last year, Cirrus des Aigles beat Treve, who won the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe in 2013 and again last fall.

The Prix Ganay, run at 1 5/16 miles on turf, drew a field of seven, including Al Kazeem, who won the Group 1 Prince of Wales’s Stakes at Royal Ascot in 2013. Al Kazeem, 7, won the Group 2 Prix d’Harcourt at Longchamp on April 6 in his first start this year.