O'Brien barn sweeps Irish Guineas

Aidan O'Brien, who has dominated Irish racing for the past five years, saddled the first three finishers in the Entemann's Irish 2000 Guineas at the Curragh on Saturday. The first two finishers, Black Minnaloushe and Mozart, were the least fancied of O'Brien's four runners at 20-1.

Black Minnaloushe rallied to win by two lengths, covering the mile on good to yielding turf in 1:41.40. Mozart held off the favorite, Minardi, by three-quarters of a length to claim second.

A Kentucky-bred son of Storm Cat, Black Minnaloushe cost $750,000 as a foal and is a half-brother to the 1995 English 2000 Guineas winner, Pennekamp.

O'Brien gave much of the credit for the victory to jockey Jamie Spencer, who rode Black Minnaloushe in France but this time was on seventh-placed Freud.

"Jamie said the only way to ride the horse is to produce him very late and that if you do he would be a serious miler," O'Brien said.