Irish 1000 Guineas

Al Shira'aa boss Kieran Lalor has admitted that it will be hard to top last season's achievements in winning the G1 Prix Saint-Alary with Jannah Rose (Ire) but nominated the Willie McCreery-trained Group 2 scorer Vespertilio (Fr) (Night Of Thunder {Ire}) as being the operation's best chance of delivering big-race riches in 2024.  Meanwhile, the decision has been made to retire the powerful owner-breeder's flagship performer Jannah Rose, with a visit to superstar stallion Dubawi (Ire) pencilled in for the four-year-old this spring. Lalor explained how retiring the Group 1-winning...

Nine new race days have been added to the World Pool calendar in the first six months of 2024, including the Newmarket fixture on Sunday, May 5 which features the G1 QIPCO 1,000 Guineas. One other race on the card will be included during a bumper weekend of action on the Rowley Mile, following on from the entire G1 QIPCO 2,000 Guineas card on Saturday, May 4 which has been a World Pool event since 2022. The other additions to the schedule include the G1 Tattersalls Irish 1,000 Guineas and...

The Irish 1000 Guineas will come too soon for Limiti Di Greccio (Ire) (Elzaam {Aus}), according to trainer Paddy Twomey, who is concentrating on the second half of the season with the exciting filly after she picked up "a minor training setback".  Limiti Di Greccio, winner of the Listed Staffordstown Stud S. last season, had been as short as 15-2 to provide Twomey with a breakthrough Classic success at the Curragh on Sunday. Twomey explained, "She picked up a minor training setback and is not ready to run at the...

Leading Irish 1,000 Guineas fancy Inspiral (GB) (Frankel {GB}) will not run at the Curragh on Sunday and will instead chart a path towards the G1 Coronation S. at Royal Ascot on June 17. The decision was made after the filly was ridden in a key workout by Frankie Dettori over the weekend and the news was revealed by Cheveley Park's Chris Richardson on Monday. Richardson said that it was the recommendation of joint-trainer John Gosden to go straight to Royal Ascot and bypass the Curragh this weekend. He explained,...

The only man in history to win the Champion Hurdle, Champion Chase, Gold Cup and Grand National in the same season, Henry de Bromhead is not content on tightening his grip on the major jumps races and is now taking aim at the Irish 1,000 Guineas with Star Girls Aalmal (Ire) (Elzaam {Aus}).  De Bromhead signed off on another memorable National Hunt season at Punchestown last month by sending out Honeysuckle (GB) (Sulamani {Ire}) to win her 12th Grade 1 and extend her unbeaten record to 16. As the Flat...

Now that the abnormally dry Spring has given way to an ongoing wet spell, Sunday's G1 Tattersalls Irish 1000 Guineas at The Curragh looks poised for John Oxley's Pretty Gorgeous (Fr) (Lawman {Fr}) to re-impose herself on a division she had largely mastered by the end of 2020. Labelled a 'TDN Rising Star' on her impressive debut at Bellewstown in July, she remained unbeaten on ground softer than good thereafter, adding this track's G2 Debutante S. and Newmarket's G1 Fillies' Mile to her tally. Second to Shale (Ire) (Galileo {Ire})...

Saturday's Curragh card which features the G1 Tattersalls Irish 2000 Guineas is in doubt after 35 millimetres of rain hit the track overnight Thursday. With a morning inspection called, chief executive Pat Keogh is hoping for a turnaround with the course currently waterlogged in places. "We got a lot more rain than we anticipated overnight. We were forecast 15 millimetres at the most in the last 24 hours," he explained on Friday. "It's come completely out of left field, unfortunately. The track would not be raceable today. We'll just have...

Saffron Beach (Ire) (New Bay {GB}), second in both the G1 1000 Guineas and the G3 Nelly Gwyn S. this season, will head next to the G1 Irish 1000 Guineas on May 23, according to trainer Jane Chapple-Hyam. "She has been left in the Oaks in case anything happened in Ireland or Government rules changed, because living in Covid times things like that can happen," Chapple-Hyam said. "The owners are all on the same page and are keen to send her to Ireland, where Adam [Kirby] will ride her. Her...

Jessie Harrington has begun the season with a flourish and all the stars could be aligned for Albigna (Ire) (Zoffany {Ire}) to provide a first Classic success in Saturday's G1 Tattersalls Irish 1000 Guineas at The Curragh. The Niarchos family's homebred has stronger claims at this stage of her career than the 2018 heroine Alpha Centauri (Ire) (Mastercraftsman {Ire}), having won the six-furlong G2 Airlie Stud S. here in June and G1 Prix Marcel Boussac at ParisLongchamp in October before finishing fourth in the GI Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies Turf....

While Khalid Abdullah's unbeaten Siskin (First Defence) is the current favourite for Friday evening's €250,000 G1 Irish 2000 Guineas at The Curragh, the G2 Railway S. and G1 Phoenix S. winner is far from the certainty that Pinatubo (Ire) (Shamardal) appeared to be at Newmarket six days earlier and even that champion met with reversal at crunch-time. Connections will be hoping that the forecast rain does not make a major difference to the current fast conditions and the homebred enters his Classic test showing all the right signals. His biggest...