Magical wins Tattersalls Gold Cup; Hermosa takes Irish 1000 Guineas

Aidan O’Brien dominates high-end racing in Ireland, and two fillies from his training yard, Magical and Hermosa, dominated the Group 1 races Sunday at The Curragh.

Magical made short work of a short field in the Tattersalls Gold Cup, beating stablemate Flag of Honour by seven lengths, and one race later, Hermosa gave O’Brien his eighth win in the Irish 1000 Guineas.

Hermosa was a longshot under Wayne Lordan when she made all the running to win the English 1000 Guineas over a straight mile at Newmarket but was favored Sunday under Ryan Moore going the same distance around one right-handed bend. Hermosa broke well from the inside but was hooked early before pushing out to lead around the elbow and into the long homestretch, and when Moore set Hermosa down, his filly responded, pulling away to win by four lengths over the pace-pressing Pretty Pollyanna.

“She was always in control and didn’t really look like getting beat at any stage,” said Moore, who had ridden Hermosa twice last season.

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Hermosa had a busy 2-year-old campaign, winning twice from seven starts while twice placed at the Group 1 level, but has clearly come back a better filly at 3. She more than validated her 1000 Guineas win at Newmarket and now, according to O’Brien, heads to the Prix de Diane (French Oaks) next month. Hermosa is by Galileo and out of Beauty Is Truth, by Pivotal, and is just shy of becoming her dam’s third seven-figure earner following The United States and Hydrangea.

Foxtrot Liv finished third, and Irridessa was fourth. The O’Brien-trained pair of Fairyland and Just Wonderful, sixth and seventh, will be cut back to shorter distances. Qabala, the race’s second choice, finished ninth and “scoped abnormally” after the race, according to official accounts.

In the Tattersalls Gold Cup, Magical – Moore up again – let Flag of Honour and Donnacha O’Brien show the way until the last quarter-mile of this 1 5/16-mile race, and when Magical came to challenge, Flag of Honour folded. Magical galloped to the most comfortable of Group 1 victories while winning for the third time this season.

Flag of Honour has finished second to Magical in all three of those races, but Magical, the runner-up to Enable last fall in the Breeders’ Cup Turf, figures to get a much sterner test if she goes next in the Prince of Wales’s Stakes at the Royal Ascot meeting. The 4--year-old Magical, now 15-7-3-0 in her career, is by Galileo and out of Halfway to Heaven, by Pivotal. The mare also produced the millionaire Rhododendron in 2014.