This weekend’s Curragh classic action could see a revitalised Godolphin take on Aidan O’Brien’s Ballydoyle team in its own backyard and potentially secure a little slice of history into the bargain.
Godolphin’s trainer Charlie Appleby is weighing up allowing Distant Storm renew rivalry with Gstaad in Saturday’s Tattersalls Irish 2000 Guineas.
The colt was third in the Newmarket Guineas earlier this month, all of eight lengths behind his Ballydoyle rival who got closest to the outstanding winner Bow Echo. Ante-post betting has Gstaad as short as 4/11 to go one better at the Curragh and deliver O’Brien a 13th success in the colts’ classic.
Nevertheless, Appleby isn’t shying away from another tilt at Gstaad and is also pondering a crack at Sunday’s 1000 Guineas with Abashiri. The Frankel filly was fifth to True Love in the Newmarket version but could benefit from that experience in any rematch.
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“The filly has definitely come out of the Guineas in great order and that whole experience of the Guineas and Newmarket was a big learning curve having only had one run on the all-weather. She looked a bit clueless when the rest were quickening.
“William’s (Buick) feedback when he got off her was to stick at a mile and his impression was that she was sharp enough to stay at a mile for the minute. We’ll either run her in Ireland or run her in France in the Prix de Sandringham (at Chantilly) the weekend after,” the trainer said on Monday.
Should Abashiri step up to Group One glory, it would complete a the full set of Irish classics for sheikh Mohammed’s Godolphin operation.
Balanchine was a memorable winner of the 1994 Irish Derby for Godolphin, and the famous blue colours have been carried in all the other Curragh classics bar the 1000.
Their prepotent stallion Dubawi landed the 2000 Guineas 21 years ago, as did the Appleby-prepared Native Trail in 2022. Hurricane Lane and Jack Hobbs also won the Derby, while Blue Bunting was an Oaks winner in 2011 when trained by the disgraced Mahmood Al Zarooni. Kayf Tara won the Irish Leger back-to-back in 1998-99.
Distant Storm started a 3/1 joint-favourite with Gstaad in Newmarket but had a distant view of the first two.
“Both Distant Storm and Abashiri worked on Saturday morning and looked great and have come out of their races at Newmarket well, so we’re very much keeping an eye on Ireland.
“On the evidence of Saturday, we’ll leave them in and we’ll follow it through the week, check their wellness and more importantly see who else is going to turn up really,” said Appleby.
A recent upturn in Godolphin’s fortunes was underlined with a spectacular Lockinge victory for Notable Speech at Newbury on Saturday. It was a welcome morale boost following a series of reverses in various Trial races for the Derby and Oaks.
The shape of this weekend’s action will become clearer after Tuesday’s acceptance stage, including for the third Group One contest up for grabs at the Curragh, Sunday’s Tattersalls Gold Cup.
Godolphin’s top older horse Ombudsman is an entry in that but appears more likely to wait for another contest in Sandown. O’Brien’s Minnie Hauk is currently as low as 4/6 for Sunday’s 10-furlong race.
The Guineas festival is now a two-day event following the decision to drop the Friday evening date.
“It will be the first two-day Guineas for some time (since 2019). We think it will be better for the absence of a Friday night which hasn’t really worked. We’ve been able this year to move it to Good Friday,” said Curragh chief executive Brian Kavanagh.
“We felt it wasn’t working. In fact, it was getting in the way a little bit of the Saturday and the Sunday. It’s not like the Derby weekend where the Friday is well established. We now have two days of high-quality racing with very strong back up each day,” he added.
Another colt from the Newmarket 2000 Guineas set to line up in the Curragh equivalent is Thesecretadversary. Fozzy Stack’s runner was fifth at Newmarket on the back of an impressive Trial success at Leopardstown.
He is currently a 7/1 shot in some lists to step up and deliver regular jockey Seamus Heffernan the final leg of his own Irish classic clean sweep. The 2000 Guineas is the sole Curragh classic the 53-year-old veteran rider has yet to win.
Heffernan has four rides at Cork on Tuesday evening including Stack’s De Vega Queen in a 12-furlong maiden. This looks a good opportunity though for Sangreal who found only Eretria too good on her Leopardstown debut. She can confirm form with the third that day, Camelot Queen.
Alaskan Bear’s own debut was encouraging at Naas behind Confucius, and he can successfully concede weight in Tuesday’s opener.
