Tattersalls Irish 1,000 Guineas (Group 1)

CHRIS Hayes said that his heart sank when he saw Tahiyra was drawn in stall one while Dermot Weld warned about his filly’s ability to handle a quicker surface in the 1000 Guineas. As it turned out, the Aga Khan-owned filly was just too good, overcoming both of those worries and some in-running trouble to once again hold the measure of Meditate, who was a length and a half away in second.

The daughter of Siyouni deserved this classic because she probably produced one of the best performances seen in the 1000 Guineas at Newmarket and remarkably still managed to come off second best to Mawj.

From the early stages, the prospect of traffic problems was high, but Hayes did superbly well to get her into the clear right at the two-furlong marker, edging up alongside Meditate and it looked relatively comfortable from there, for all that she was probably a bit below the level she showed at Newmarket.

That is for another day because she is now a classic winner and dual Group 1 scorer, giving her jockey and trainer back-to-back wins in this race.

“Never in my wildest dreams did I think someone like me is going to be riding short-priced favourites in Guineas, and if it didn’t happen, I knew I’d never get the bounce of the ball like this again,” Hayes reflected.

“I was worried about the draw. I didn’t know how I was going to play it and in fairness to the boss and all the team of the Aga Khan, there was no pressure.

“The gap was tight when I went for it. She’s not very big but she’s all heart. I played the race in my head a million times since declarations and when I saw she was drawn one, I said ‘how am I going to do this?’ But I had the utmost confidence in this filly.”

Classic

For Weld, it was a sixth win in total in the race, his 21st Irish classic win and 27th European classic.

“She has done it very impressively, she has a lot of pace, a lot of class, a lot of speed,” he said. “The plan was to hold on to her and ride her for speed.

“That ground was my only concern, whether she’d let herself down on the quick ground.They’ve done a good job watering here, but it’s a beautiful day so it’s fast ground and she was so effective on slower ground last year.

“I did have a concern (about the draw) as I thought there might be a slow pace and she’d get boxed in with nowhere to go. The advantage when you’re riding a horse with that speed is that she can get out of that sort of situation.”

Tahiyra is set fair for a rematch with Mawj, Saeed Bin Suroor’s filly, in what will be a tantalising Coronation Stakes at Royal Ascot.

The bookmakers favour her to reverse form, making her a general 7/4 favourite, while Meditate will come into the equation off the back of her run here, with Aidan O’Brien positive about the prospect of her racing around a bend.

Jim Bolger’s Comhra was the springer in the race, defying odds of 150/1, to earn significant blacktype while Weld’s Tarawa was an eyecatching fourth, given her path was blocked several times on her way through.

PADDY Twomey was adamant a better surface would make a big difference to Just Beautiful and that proved to be the case as she made all in the Group 2 Lanwades Stud Stakes with Billy Lee.

The Moyglare Stud-owned filly was previously trained in Britain by Ivan Furtado before she was purchased for 625,000 guineas at auction. In truth she had looked a little disappointing on her three runs, but Twomey never lost any faith.

“The fact that she ran at all last season was amazing and the fact that she was third to Art Power here told us all we needed to know,” he said. “We had an option to run her back in the new six-furlong listed race in October but I said to Billy, that winning a listed race with her in October makes no sense.

“She needed her run here the last day on soft ground, which she just can’t function on. We could look at the Duke of Cambridge for her now. Anything on fast ground from six and a half furlongs to a mile is what she wants.”

Split

The Barberstown Castle Irish EBF Fillies & Mares Handicap split into three different groups but it was the middle one who held sway, with Gavin Cromwell’s Transcendental responding well to the urgings of Gary Carroll to find her way to the front inside the final furlong, fending off Iva Batt and Queen Maedhb.

The Nigel O’Hare, Mark Devlin, John Donnelly and Kabin Racing Syndicate-owned five-year-old mare was bought out of Pierre Sogorb’s yard in France last autumn, and though she failed to make a real mark at Dundalk over the winter, she looks a better filly on grass, and in particular on this quicker ground.

For the second year in a row, James Barrett’s Dame Rapide took the Download The App At Novibet Handicap, this time at odds of 40/1.

The E Habibovic-owned mare raced towards the head of mid division for Luke McAteer before making headway at the top of the straight, and fighting on valiantly to see off the challenge of the much better fancied Black Hawk Eagle. She had failed to make an impact on her three previous runs over hurdles but defied a mark of 92 back on the flat here, 13lbs higher than last year, and connections will have a good chance of getting some blacktype with her now.

Sunday’s talking points from the track - Ronan Groome

1. Lux good for a big season?

Ryan Moore rightly pointed out that following his success in the Tattersalls Gold Cup, Luxembourg is a Group 1 winner at two, three and now four, but in the same sentence, he also stated his belief that they hadn’t got to the bottom of the horse yet. That sounds like the best career sum-up thus far of the one-time hot Derby favourite. When he’s been good he’s been very good, but he hasn’t had many chances to be good - missing most of his two-year-old and three-year-old campaigns for different reasons. With a clean bill of health, he could go very far this term, not least with a well planned campaign and training regime from race to race, something he hasn’t had in his career so far.

2. Tahiyra/Mawj rematch at Ascot is tantalising but will it happen?

Dermot Weld was worried about the quick ground for Tahiyra in the 1000 Guineas and while she overcame that new variable, will he be as willing to race her on ground as fast or faster at Royal Ascot? I’m not so sure. Meditate closed the gap significantly on her old rival here, both from their meeting at Newmarket and even the Moyglare here in September, when racing on soft ground. The daughter of Siyouni has also had two very tough races to begin her season, and was a doubt to run at Newmarket for a long time where she did end up having a hard race. Ascot could come too soon. There is recent precedent as well, given Homeless Songs was due to run in the Coronation Stakes before Weld withdrew her due to the forecast quick ground, and he may adopt a similar patient approach with his latest star three-year-old filly.

3. Carroll’s fine start

Gary Carroll is enjoying a fine start to the flat championship, his 15 winners enough to put him inside the top five, while his 15% strike rate is the best in the top 27 riders bar Ryan Moore.

The Kildare native has made the most of riding freelance for a number of years now, but has been at the top of his game for the last three seasons, riding more than 40 winners at home for each of his last two campaigns. He is on target for that total again so far, and was seen to excellent effect in driving home Gavin Cromwell’s Transcendental in the valuable six-furlong fillies’ and mares’ handicap, which was his next ride after he brought Brighterdaysrcoming to come through late and take a seven-furlong on Saturday.