The Group I Irish 2000 Guineas (1m) was run overnight at The Curragh and for the first time this year we saw a Classic go to script with the favourite taking the prize to give Darley shuttler Blue Point (IRE) his first three year-old Group I winner.
Trained by Richard Hannon and ridden by Sean Levey, Rosallion won the Group I Longchamp Prix Jean-Luc Lagardere at two and made a strong seasonal return when finishing second in the Group I Newmarket 2000 Guineas to Notable Speech.
Sent out favourite for this assignment, he finished off with a brilliant late surge to claim a well timed a head win over his stablemate Haaatem (Phoenix of Spain) with River Tiber (Wootton Bassett) in third place.
With four wins and two placings from six starts, Rosallion heads next to Royal Ascot for the Group I St James’s Palace Stakes next month.
“He has always been a little bit special and we built him up quite a lot, so it's lovely to see him win a Classic. Both horses ran the races of their lives. Rosallion will go to Ascot now and it'll be a great race for everybody,” said Richard Hannon.
A homebred for Sheikh Mohammed Obaid Al Maktoum, Rosallion is the second winner from Rosaline, an unraced sibling by New Approach to Group I winners Triple Time (who shuttles to Darley NSW this year) and Ajman Princess, Group winners Ostillio and Cape Byron and stakes-winners Third Realm and Captain Winters.
The family was firing up overnight with another new Group II winner when three year-old Shamardal colt Inisherin took out the Group II Sandy Lane Stakes (6f) at Haydock.
Another homebred for homebred for Sheikh Mohammed Obaid Al Maktoum, Inisherin was second at his only start last year, but obviously held in high regard as they sent him around in the Group I Newmarket 2000 Guineas where he finished sixth to Notable Speech after an impressive seasonal return win in March.
Ridden by Tom Eaves, Inisherin bolted in by nearly four lengths with the race favourite, two time Group I winning colt Vandeek, finishing only third to lose his undefeated tag.
“I was always in my comfort zone, Inisherin is a very good horse - it makes life easy! It was solid form in the Guineas. You always think coming to sprinting will he be quick enough? But Kevin was always very confident of that,” said Tom Eaves.
“It's only his fourth start so he's a horse very much on the up and just finding his feet. I don't know what the plan is now but he's got plenty of speed and there will be plenty of options.”
Inisherin is the first winner for Teofilo’s Group I winning daughter Ajman Princess, a sibling to the dam of Rosallion, who is by Shamardal’s son Blue Point.
Inisherin is the 172nd stakes-winner for Shamardal and is from the final crop of the champion son of Giant’s Causeway, who died in 2020.
He has two Group I winning sons shuttling to Darley Australia this spring. Blue Point goes to Victoria at a fee of $44,000 and Pinatubo to NSW at $55,000.
Blue Point made it a stakes double on the day with his three year-old filly Raquiya winning the Listed Cathedral Stakes (6f) at Salisbury.
A Shadwell homebred trained by Owen Burrows, she won by a neck taking her overall record to three wins from five starts with her first Black Type success.
Raqiya is the sixth stakes-winner for Blue Point and is the best of three winners from unraced Dansili mare Rihaam, a sibling to stakes-winners Ethaara, Sudoor and Mudaaraah.
