Thirteen horses remain in the mix for Saturday's G1 Tattersalls Irish 2000 Guineas at The Curragh including Galileo Gold (GB) (Paco Boy {Ire}), who will bid for a Classic double following his win in the G1 QIPCO 2000 Guineas at Newmarket. Hugo Palmer is happy with Al Shaqab Racing's colt but is under no illusions as to the stiff task ahead, “The Irish 2000 Guineas is a hugely prestigious race and we are very excited to be going there with, what I hope, is a favourites chance. The Curragh has been a happy hunting ground for me and I hope it will be again. Galileo Gold has to go to the Curragh in exactly the same form or maybe even better form than he was at Newmarket and I hope he is,” said Palmer.
Aidan O'Brien has kept his options open leaving in six potential starters including Newmarket fourth-place-getter Air Vice Marshall (War Front), Newmarket disappointment Air Force Blue (War Front) and Sunday's impressive G1 Poule D'Essai Des Poulains winner The Gurkha (Ire) (Galilieo {Ire}). “We would love to run Air Force Blue if we got a bit of nice ground. We are happy with him since Newmarket and we would love to go there with him and hopefully the ground will stay nice for him. We have tweaked a few things in his training and we are happy with him so far,” said O'Brien. He added, “We will take a look at things on Wednesday and the amount of rain the Curragh gets will be a factor on what runs. Newmarket was a first run of the season for Air Vice Marshall so hopefully he will come on for that. The Gurkha obviously only ran last week and we've left him in but more than likely he probably won't run.”
Veteran Irish trainer Kevin Prendergast has Awtaad (Ire) (Cape Cross {Ire}) on target for the race and is one trainer who won't mind some rain between now and Saturday. His colt was impressive in beating another challenger Blue De Vega (Ger) (Lope De Vega {Ire}) in the Listed Tetrarch S. at The Curragh May 2 on soft ground after which the trainer described Sheikh Hamdan Al Maktoum's colt as “a smart horse that has trained on well.” Should he win, it would be a highly popular victory for the 83-year-old trainer who landed his first Classic with Pidget in the 1972 running of the G1 Irish 1000 Guineas.
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