Aidan O’Brien had been in the winner’s enclosure after the 2,000 Guineas half a dozen times before Gleneagles gave him a record-equalling seventh success in the Classic here on Saturday, but for Ryan Moore it was a new experience. Moore, famously reserved in victory, managed a smile for the crowd as he returned on the 4-1 favourite, and after just a few weeks as the senior rider at O’Brien’s Ballydoyle stable, there is a sense that the partnership’s first Group One success of the season will be the first of many.
Gleneagles was warm and edgy in the paddock before the race, but a model of professionalism once the gates opened, and clearly the best horse in the race by some distance. He is by the Derby winner Galileo, but his mother was a full-sister to the powerful miler Giant’s Causeway, and he has inherited a high cruising speed that carried him along within a couple of lengths of the leaders against the stands rail.
Despite new measures intended to stop the runners splitting, the big field again divided in half until inside the final quarter-mile. The near side was always going slightly faster, however, and Gleneagles’s gallop carried him to the front with about a furlong to run and without Moore asking for maximum effort. He then stayed on strongly to beat André Fabre’s Territories by two-and-a-quarter lengths. It was another three-quarters of a length back to Ivawood, the best of Richard Hannon’s four runners and the first British-trained runner across the line.
“He felt great,” Moore said. “He travelled very comfortably. Throughout the whole race there was never really any doubt. They weren’t fast enough to lead him for long enough. He’s a horse with a lot of talent and there will be better to come.
“When it opened up [inside the final quarter-mile] the race was falling apart in front of me and there was nothing to lead me as long as I’d have liked, but he’s all class and the best horse and he showed it.”
Despite being a son of Galileo, O’Brien feels that Gleneagles is a confirmed miler and with Ol’ Man River, his second runner in the race, a disappointing last of the 18 runners, the Guineas did not produce an obvious contender for the Derby at Epsom in June.
“He was always an exceptional horse,” O’Brien said. “It’s hard to see any horse anywhere that could have a better pedigree, and all the traits were like Giant’s Causeway. He travels strong, gets to the front and then doesn’t do much, and all the family are like that.
“He was always very mature [last year], after his maiden he ran in Group races all along. You’d have to think about the Irish Guineas and the St James’s Palace Stakes [at Royal Ascot] for him now. He’s a very strong traveller and you’d like to keep him at a mile.
“It’s all pace with him. We’ve never had a miler by Galileo that travels like he does.
“It’s great [having Moore riding] because it takes the pressure off Joseph [O’Brien, the trainer’s son and former No1 jockey, who is struggling to maintain a Flat jockey’s racing weight]. We’ve been working with Ryan for a good few years now. He’s an unbelievable jockey and a great person.”
Jack Hobbs, the winner of a handicap at Sandown, is the new market leader for the Derby before an expected trial run in the Dante Stakes at York this month. John F Kennedy, who was unexpectedly beaten on his seasonal debut last month, could now emerge as O’Brien’s main Classic candidate as he attempts to win the Derby for the fourth year running and will run next in the Derrinstown Stud Derby Trial on 10 May.
Goldream, who spent the 2014 season carrying big weights with distinction in a series of valuable sprint handicaps, made a smooth transition to Group company in the Palace House Stakes. Robert Cowell’s six-year-old beat his stablemate and former Group One winner Kingsgate Native, four years his senior, by one-and-a-quarter lengths and will now be steered towards the Temple Stakes at Haydock and possibly the Group One King’s Stand Stakes at Royal Ascot in June.
“They’ll both go to Haydock,” Cowell, who won the King’s Stand with Prohibit in 2011, said. “Kingsgate has run an absolute cracker for a 10-year-old, and Goldream went through the handicap system last year and was incredibly game with top weights.
“I always thought that he was capable of moving up to this level and his work has been out of the top drawer this year. We entered him in the King’s Stand, so he will be going there if he runs well at Haydock. The key to him really is fast ground and he’s a horse to be reckoned with, he’s got so many good credentials to be a top sprinter this year.”
Punters suffered a setback in the four-runner Jockey Club Stakes as Telescope, last year’s Hardwicke Stakes winner and odds-on at 8-13, was reeled in by Second Step in the closing stages.
Ryan Moore sent Telescope for home nearly two furlongs out and might reflect that he could have delayed his challenge for a few strides more, but Second Step still did well to chase down Telescope after he had opened up what appeared to be a decisive lead.
“I wouldn’t have chosen this race if I could have found an easier opportunity,” Luca Cumani, Second Step’s trainer, said. “I told Andrea [Atzeni] to ride him with confidence and sit at the back and let the others pick each other off and see how many pieces he can pick up in the end. Sure enough, he picked all the pieces up.”
