With just days to the start of the classic season at Newmarket any sense of “phoney war” surrounding the 2017 flat campaign vanished at Naas where 2016’s Horse of the Year Minding returned to action with aplomb.
A year to the day since graduating to classic success herself with a stunning 1,000 Guineas victory, Minding made most of the running to easily land the Group Two Camelot Mooresbride Stakes under Ryan Moore.
The Englishman had earlier scored his first success of the season in Ireland with Aidan O’Brien’s first juvenile winner of 2017 and much of the racing world would give plenty to be flies on the wall when both men plot out a route to potential 2,000 Guineas glory on Saturday for Churchill.
Like all seven of O’Brien’s previous winners of the colts classic, Churchill will make his seasonal debut at Newmarket and is a general 6-4 favourite to give the trainer a record eighth Guineas victory.
“We’ll talk to Ryan in the middle of the week, go through the make-up of the field and see what he thinks,” said O’Brien , who has four of the dozen colts left in the race. “Everything has gone smoothly with Churchill so far and it looks a high-quality race with all the trial winners there.”
Caravaggio is not among the English Guineas quartet from Ballydoyle and will be stepped up in his work this week with a view to potentially waiting for the French version at Deauville a week later.
Sunday’s 1,000 Guineas favourite Rhododendron is one of five O’Brien fillies among an overall entry of 18 which also includes Joseph O’Brien’s Moyglare winner, Intricately. However, the champion trainer indicated one of them, Roly Poly, could wait for the French 1,000.
It was Minding who concentrated O’Brien’s attention though when landing 1-3 odds and he indicated she is likely to bid for an eighth career Group One in the Tattersalls Gold Cup.
Great filly
“She’s a great filly and what she done last year was incredible. It’s very rare a horse can do that over a mile, a mile and a quarter and a mile and a half,” O’Brien said.
He was speaking at a sun-soaked May Bank Holiday fixture which heralded a definite changing of the seasons on the back of last week's Punchestown festival although it was a case of business as usual for Jessica Harrington.
The in-form trainer produced the giant juvenile filly Alpha Centauri to make an impressive winning debut and even secure 33-1 classic quotes herself – for next year’s 1,000 Guineas.
“When she came to me before Christmas she weighed 530 kilos which is heavier than most of my jumpers. I sent them back three times to weigh her because I said ‘you must have got it wrong!’” joked Harrington. “She still weighs over 500 kilos and it’s amazing how big she is.”
Earlier in the day Rehana was taken out of the Newmarket Guineas but earned her classic ticket to the Irish 1,000 with a smooth Group Three Athasi Stakes victory.
"It's amazing at this time of year if a filly gets her head in front what it can do for their confidence," said her trainer Michael Halford.
Doctor Geoff scored an 8-1 win in the Listed Tetrarch Stakes where Ballydoyle’s Peace Envoy, who is still in Saturday’s 1,000 Guineas, started favourite and got no run up the straight before finishing a luckless fourth.
In contrast Gary Carroll got a split on the winner who trainer Ger Lyons reckons could develop into a Jersey Stakes prospect.
“You need to stay a mile and have the speed for seven in the Jersey and this one falls into that category,” he said.
