Soggy ground awaits for Irish 1000 Guineas, Tattersalls Gold Cup

There will be no Love on Sunday at The Curragh. In fact, there might not be any kind of racing Sunday at The Curragh, where a week’s worth of rain has left the famed Irish course waterlogged heading into Guineas weekend.

The Irish 2000 Guineas was to headline the Saturday program, while Love, the Aidan O’Brien-trained star 4-year-old filly, was considered a probable runner Sunday in the Group 1 Tattersalls Gold Cup, which shares the card with the Irish 1000 Guineas. Owing to the sodden conditions, O’Brien did not leave Love in the final round of declarations, and the filly will have to await another spot to race for the first time since she won the Yorkshire Oaks last August. Favored at the time for the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe, Love was put away for the year because of an unusually wet autumn in Europe since the filly would prefer to stay atop a course, rather than sink down into it.

Irish racing officials were set to inspect The Curragh early Saturday morning, and while a diminishment of precipitation Friday into Saturday raised hope that the 2000 Guineas card could go off as scheduled, another round of forecast rain before Sunday further imperils the 1000 Guineas and Tattersalls Gold Cup. Published reports said Monday was the planned make-up day for any canceled events.

Even losing Love, O’Brien trains the top three early betting choices in the 1 5/16-mile Tattersalls Gold Cup, which, on Friday, had Broome at the head of the betting. Five-year-old Broome thrives on early-season racing; he won his first two races of 2020 and has started this campaign with three wins, the most recent on May 3 in the Group 2 Mooresbridge Stakes over 1 1/4 miles at The Curragh. Broome, who has Ryan Moore named, handles soft conditions, though it’s anyone’s guess which horse takes to what will be a boggy course should racing be held Sunday. Second favored Friday was Tiger Moth, whose last start produced a second-place finish last November in the Melbourne Cup. O’Brien also left 2020 Derby upsetter Serpentine in the entries.

The Jessica Harrington-trained filly Cayenne Pepper, 10th in the Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Turf in her most recent start, is set, like Serpentine, to make her first start as a 4-year-old.

O’Brien has trained the last two Irish 1000 Guineas winners, but it’s his son Joseph O’Brien, who trains the early favorite for Sunday’s renewal, Pretty Gorgeous. Unraced at 3, Pretty Gorgeous rated right at the top of the European 2-year-old filly class of 2020, winning the Group 1 Fillies Mile at Newmarket in her seasonal finale. Earlier in her campaign, she turned in an especially strong performance racing over soft ground at The Curragh capturing the Group 2 Debutante Stakes by more than two lengths over subsequent Group 1 winner Shale.

O’Brien the elder counters with Joan of Arc, who already has gotten in three starts this year while stepping up above the Group 3 level for the first time Sunday.

Fev Rover, third in the English 1000 Guineas, is the other filly attracting considerable betting support.

◗ Joe Mercer, a champion British jockey, died earlier this week at 86. Mercer, a native of Great Britain, was the regular rider for the esteemed English racehorse Brigadier Gerard, rated among the best Thoroughbreds of the 20th century.