By Tom Frary
Achieving the formidable feat of winning the G2 Queen Mary Stakes, G1 Cheveley Park Stakes and G1 1,000 Guineas, Ballydoyle's True Love (No Nay Never) entered hallowed territory at Newmarket on Sunday.
Sent off at 5-1, the second-string for Aidan O'Brien was always travelling like the winner stalking the strongest pace among the stand's-side group and when sent by Wayne Lordan swamped Evolutionist (Night Of Thunder) to beat that rival by 1 3/4 lengths. Venetian Lace (Masar) made it a one-two-three for the Group 1 fillies in the line-up, another half a length behind while the winner's stablemate Precise (Starspangledbanner) could only finish seventh as the 9-5 favourite. The winning time of 1:35.14 was impressive and eclipsed that of the 2,000, even allowing for the fact that the ground had likely quickened overnight.
“She's amazing. She's a monster of a filly really, an absolute queen,” O'Brien said of his eighth winner of this Classic. “It's very unusual for a Queen Mary winner to win a Guineas, but she's an unusual specimen–I remember at Ascot last year she looked like a national hunt mare against two-year-old fillies. She's a massive, powerful filly with a great mind–I can't imagine there are many colts as big as her.”
The last Queen Mary winner to go on to glory here was Attraction in 2004, who missed the Cheveley Park in between through injury. True Love had already raced twice before the Royal meeting, finishing runner-up to Lady Iman in the Listed First Flier Stakes and to Gstaad at Navan but took a step forward in Berkshire before returning to Ireland to slam Puerto Rico by five lengths in the G2 Railway Stakes. Turned over by Power Blue in the Phoenix, she came here to redeem herself in the Cheveley Park prior to her first off-the-board effort in the Breeders' Cup Juvenile Turf Sprint.
It was in the G3 Priory Belle that we first saw the reinvented True Love, turned from powersprinter to a more relaxed proposition but this Rowley Mile test still appeared likely out of range. With Ryan Moore committed to Precise, it was Wayne Lordan who profited as he had on Winter in 2017 when the stable number one was Rhododendron and in 2019 as Hermosa upstaged Moore's pick Just Wonderful.
Racing almost exactly to par for the first five furlongs with the overall leader Venetian Lace dead ahead, True Love was able to extract a scintillating 10.93 sectional between the three and the two to close in for the kill and culminate her masterpiece with a finishing speed percentage of 100.67 to marginally outshine the finale of Bow Echo 24 hours earlier. Interestingly, the only other filly to dip under 11 seconds at any point was Precise, who near the far rail was always behind her stablemate's group and who was unable to sustain her surge up the rising ground.
True Love's win provides a landmark for No Nay Never, whose Guineas hoodoo was finally broken after his high-profile sons Wichita, Ten Sovereigns and Little Big Bear and filly Alcohol Free all failed to win their mile Classics.
“You couldn't be sure she was going to get a mile, but Wayne gave her a beautiful, exceptional ride,” O'Brien said. “The race that this filly won last time, nearly all of our 1,000 Guineas winners had won on the way to here. Precise had a temperature two months ago, so there was always going to be a danger that might catch her a little bit and she obviously got a little bit tired.”
“Last year, I ran True Love in the wrong race in America–it wasn't fair to her, as she got drawn very badly and I should have run her over a mile. She was able to win over seven furlongs last time at Leopardstown, where she got no cover, so there was always a chance she could get this and the lads throughout the winter thought she might get the mile, as she was very relaxed in all her work.”
“This place, more than any track in the world, is very unforgiving. There is nowhere to hide out there,” he added. “It is very open and the pace is usually on. It is hard for them to go slow, as they just go at it automatically in those races so I couldn't be happier really.”
“She would have no bother going back in distance, but I would imagine she would stay at a mile now for the fillies' races. She would have the Irish 1,000 Guineas and the Coronation Stakes on her agenda now. You wouldn't go any further than a mile.”
Lordan said, “She jumped and relaxed beautifully and went through the race very comfortably. When I asked her to go forward, she went to the line well. Everything worked out perfectly today. Thankfully it is a lucky race for me, but I'm in the position to ride nice horses and when you have that you've always got a chance of winning nice races.”
Filling the frame were the two fillies who chased home Precise in the Fillies' Mile in October, with Evolutionist reversing second and third placings from that contest with Venetian Lace. Evolutionist, who had taken the far-side group along throughout, is set for a step up in trip for Chantilly's Prix de Diane.
“She is all heart,” trainer Karl Burke said. “Shane [Foley] said the ground was as quick as she would want it–he said she couldn't go any quicker on that ground. She will stay further and I would say she will go straight to the Prix de Diane now. I think the Irish 1,000 Guineas will come too soon for her, as she had a hard race there. She is a very good filly that is progressive and hopefully a step up in trip will find some more improvement.”
Burke's main hope beforehand was the Prix Morny heroine Venetian Sun (Starman) and he said of her, “Clifford [Lee] didn't think Venetian Sun stayed. She hit the gate strong, but she had no cover and the draw didn't help. At two out I thought she was getting on to the tail of Evolutionist, but she just petered out in the end. We will go back to the book and I would say she would end up going back to the Commonwealth Cup.”
Charlie Johnston is thinking of Epsom for Venetian Lace, whose game attempt to make all saw off all bar the first two. “As I said here a couple of weeks ago, I was coming here as an Oaks trial and she couldn't have run a much better one than that,” he said. “She will definitely stay 10 furlongs, whether she will stay 12 or not I don't know, but on pedigree she should and she will go straight there.”
“She ended up a little bit marooned on her own and maybe if she had some company with the first and second she might have got back up for second,” he added. “We came here for that racecourse gallop to try and learn what we are going to do this year and we left thinking we probably had more of an Oaks filly than a Guineas filly, so to finish third in a 1,000 Guineas is brilliant.”
True Love wins the @Betfred 1000 Guineas for @waynemlordan and Aidan O'Brien! @NewmarketRace pic.twitter.com/BuRJl7BvE2
— Racing TV (@RacingTV) May 3, 2026
Pedigree Notes
True Love, who is generously imbued with the speed that No Nay Never always provides, has needed all of the inherent stamina on her dam's side to provide him with his breakthrough first European Classic winner. Her talented full-sister Truly Enchanting won the G2 Airlie Stud Stakes at two, but was curtailed after and was therefore unable to offer any clues as to how this cross would work. Her half-sister Lily Pond had the stamina to win the G2 Kilboy Estate Stakes and place in the G3 Blue Wind Stakes and G3 Munster Oaks, but she was by Galileo.
Alluringly (Fastnet Rock), who was third in the Oaks, is a granddaughter of All Too Beautiful (Sadler's Wells) who was second in the Epsom Classic before taking the G3 Middleton Stakes. The daughter of the great Urban Sea (Miswaki) produced another Oaks runner-up in Wonder Of Wonders (Kingmambo), in turn the dam of War Front's Irish 1,000 Guineas third So Wonderful, and also Oasis Dream's Group-placed Sparrow who was responsible for the Cox Plate and Tancred Stakes hero Sir Dragonet (Camelot) and No Nay Never's G2 Prix du Calvados winner Les Pavots. Alluringly's two-year-old filly is by the greater stamina influence Frankel and therefore likely one who will be bidding to emulate the dynasty's Galileo and Sea The Stars at Epsom.
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