Siskin favored over O'Brien sextet in Irish 2000 Guineas

Trainer Aidan O’Brien has won the Irish 2000 Guineas 11 times. There are 11 runners in Friday’s belated 2020 renewal of race. O’Brien trains six of them. O’Brien, whose first Irish 2000 Guineas winner came in 1997, is winning the numbers game, but he doesn’t have the favorite to win Friday’s race.

As of Thursday, it was Siskin, a general 5-2 chance, favored in overseas antepost betting markets. His trainer, Ger Lyons, never has won the Irish 2000 Guineas, but Siskin never has lost a race, going 4 for 4 at age 2. Siskin, a Khalid Abdullah (Juddmonte Farms) homebred by First Defence out of Bird Flown, made his last three starts of 2019 over The Curragh course, where he races again Friday, capping his season with a victory in the Group 1 Phoenix Stakes.

Siskin clearly is capable, but 5-2 seems too short. Siskin has yet to race beyond six furlongs and while his stride suggests a horse who can get a mile, his pedigree (the dam is by Oasis Dream) offers no guarantees of it. Siskin acted up in the starting gate before the Middle Park Stakes in September and had to be scratched, so Friday’s run marks his first since August.

Armory is the shortest price among O’Brien’s sextet and stands a decent chance Friday. Armory ended his 2-year-old campaign in a match race at Longchamp, which he lost by 20 lengths, but that race, the Criterium International, was contested over heavy ground. Armory also caught a sodden course in his previous start, the Jean-Luc Lagardere, and three races back ran into Pinatubo at the height of his 2-year-old powers. Armory, who won his maiden at The Curragh, has Wayne Lordan named to ride and will stay the mile.

O’Brien cut Lope Y Fernandez back in trip from three seven-furlong races starting his career to six furlongs for his last two races of 2019, with Lope Y Fernandez running into the top-level 2-year-old sprinter Earthlight in his 2-year-old finale. Despite that turn-back, Lope Y Fernandez, on pedigree, at least, ought to do well at one mile and he was a Group 3 winner at The Curragh last summer.

Twice-started Vatican City is the dark horse for O’Brien, a son of the great sire Galileo and the mare You’resothrilling, producer of Group 1 winners Gleneagles, Happily, and Marvellous.

Post time for the Irish 2000 Guineas is 1:40 p.m. Eastern. The course as of Thursday was listed as good-to-firm.