Aidan O'Brien's pair of Gstaad (Starspangledbanner) and True Love (No Nay Never) headline the confirmations for the first Irish Classics of the season at the Curragh this weekend.
Gstaad filled the runner-up spot behind Bow Echo (Night Of Thunder) in the 2,000 Guineas at Newmarket earlier this month and, with George Boughey keeping his charge fresh for Royal Ascot, the Starspangledbanner colt is the odds-on favourite to gain compensation in Saturday's Tattersalls Irish 2,000 Guineas.
A maximum field of 13 will go to post, with Karl Burke's G3 Greenham Stakes winner Alparslan (Dandy Man), Charlie Appleby's Distant Storm (Night Of Thunder) – who was third at Newmarket – and the Fozzy Stack-trained Thesecretadversary (St Mark's Basilica) also featuring among the possible runners.
True Love, meanwhile, was an impressive winner of the 1,000 Guineas at Newmarket for O'Brien, who is responsible for four of the 16 confirmations for Sunday's Tattersalls Irish 1,000 Guineas. She could be joined in the line-up by stablemate Precise (Starspangledbanner), who finished only seventh at Newmarket following an interrupted preparation. Precise was a dual Group 1 winner as a two-year-old with victories in the Moyglare Stud Stakes and Fillies' Mile.
Appleby's Abashiri (Frankel), who finished fifth behind True Love at Newmarket, is one of five potential runners from Britain, with the others including Jack Channon's Sukanya (Havana Grey), the winner of last month's G3 Dubai Duty Free Stakes.
“We're looking forward to it. She's in great form and did a lovely bit of work over the weekend,” Channon said of his Classic contender.
“She's got solid two-year-old form – she's a very good filly. We have some very good O'Brien horses to take on, but she's in great form and we go there with a great chance.
“She's got a lot of speed and a great turn of foot, so we will be switching her off early and hoping she can come and pick them up late.”
The chief supporting race on Sunday is the Tattersalls Gold Cup, with Minnie Hauk (Frankel) in contention to bid for a fourth career Group 1 success after she rattled off a hat-trick in the Oaks, Irish Oaks and Yorkshire Oaks in 2025.
More recently, Minnie Hauk resumed winning ways in the G3 Mooresbridge Stakes at the Curragh earlier this month, having ended her three-year-old campaign with a near miss in the G1 Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe and a rare below-par display when only sixth in the GI Breeders' Cup Turf.
Ballydoyle's star filly could face up to 13 rivals in the Tattersalls Gold Cup, including Ed Walker's Almaqam (Lope De Vega), Roger Varian's Saddadd (Pinatubo) and the George Scott-trained Bay City Roller (New Bay).
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