G1 Tattersalls Gold Cup | Horse Racing Free Tips

Group 2 winner High Definition (Ire) (Galileo {Ire}) is doing well in advance of the 2021 Classics, however he is most likely to contest the G1 Epsom Derby instead of the G1 2000 Guineas, his trainer Aidan O'Brien revealed. A winner at The Curragh in August, the bay next took the G2 Beresford S. on Sept. 26 in good style. The decision was made to save him for his 3-year-old year instead of pressing on to juvenile Group 1s.

“He's a big, rangy horse with an unbelievably long stride,” O'Brien said via a Zoom call during the European 2-year-old classification press conference. “He's uncomplicated and has a good mind and has done very well over the winter. In the Beresford it looked like he couldn't win for most of the race as on the round track at The Curragh it's tough to make up ground. It looked like he couldn't win a furlong down, he had a chance half a furlong down and won very easy at the line.

“At the moment he'd probably be a shorter price to go to a Derby trial than the Guineas, but the lads will make a decision and see what they want to do. The Guineas is obviously a great trial for the Derby, but when we have other horses there for the Guineas, it's very possibly that High Definition might go to a Derby trial. He might only have one run before the Derby if he was doing that, I think.”

Freshly anointed European Champion 2-Year-Old St Mark's Basilica (Fr) (Siyouni {Fr}), who beat Wembley (Ire) (Galileo {Ire}) in the G1 Dewhurst S. and G1 Criterium International victor Van Gogh (American Pharoah) are also all major Ballydoyle contenders for the 2000 Guineas.

“The year was really a mess,” said the Ballydoyle handler. “With St Mark's Basilica, we kind of rushed him out to get a run into him and then rushed him back to run in the Heinz [Phoenix S.]. It was all just happening too quick for him and he was on the back foot. In all fairness to him, he toughed it out and did man up.

“Wembley is another a horse we always liked. We thought he'd win at The Curragh first time and when he got to the front he was very green and babyish–he was like that a good bit. I suppose the form is open to question. Quite a lot of horses finished on top of each other, but Sir Mark's Basilica and Wembley are two solid horses that are tough and learned a lot last season.

“Van Gogh is a big horse who was always going to be a big 3-year-old–he could make an awful lot of improvement.”

Another standout colt for the Coolmore operation is Battleground (War Front), a son of the G1 Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe heroine Found (Ire) (Galileo {Ire}). A winner of the Listed Chesham S. and G2 Vintage S., the bay's final juvenile run was a second in the GI Breeders' Cup Juvenile Turf at Keeneland.

“He's a Guineas horse as well, like the other three, but it's very possible that if all of them are going to the Guineas, Battleground could go to Ascot and maybe have a run before, rather than them all going to the Guineas,” O'Brien continued.

“He's a lovely horse and Newmarket would suit him. I suppose it depends on how they're all going to fall, and obviously we'll have to look at the Irish Guineas and the French Guineas as well. The English Guineas is the first one, so I'd imagine he will be in the mix for that, along with the two Dewhurst horses and Van Gogh.

“Whether Battleground goes there or goes for an easier race and then goes for the St James's Palace–I suppose it will depend on how the spring is going with them all really.”

Love (Ire) (Galileo {Ire}), who won both the G1 1000 Guineas and G1 Oaks before adding the G1 Yorkshire Oaks to her haul, will most likely be seen in action in the summer to early fall. O'Brien noted that the going conditions dictate where the chestnut 4-year-old will appear for the Coolmore partners. She had been pencilled in to clash with Enable (GB) (Nathaniel {Ire}) in the Arc before being scratched due to the ground and a trip to the Breeders' Cup was also under consideration before being tabled.

“She's very well and cantering away at the moment,” he said. “She will be ready for all those mile-and-a-quarter and mile-and-a-half races. She likes better ground and where she'll start, I suppose, will depend on that.

“There's the G1 Tattersalls Gold Cup at The Curragh, but we probably wouldn't go unless it was nice ground. She should be there for all those nice middle-distances races during the summer and into the autumn. Physically, she's done very well.”

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Avoiding her arch-foe Enable (GB) (Nathaniel {Ire}) at Ascot, Magical (Ire) (Galileo {Ire}) is kept to home soil to extend her awe-inspiring record in domestic races in Sunday’s G1 Tattersalls Gold Cup at The Curragh. With the race open to 3-year-olds in this unusual year but drawing only one which is her stable’s Armory (Ire) (Galileo {Ire}), Coolmore’s mare supreme looks to have a straightforward task in accomplishing a ninth success from 12 starts in Ireland. Her latest, in the course-and-distance G1 Pretty Polly S. June 28, was arguably her finest as she was giving 12 pounds weight-for-age and a 4 1/2-length beating to the subsequent G1 Irish Oaks runner-up Cayenne Pepper (Ire) (Australia {GB}). Last year’s G1 English and Irish Champion S. heroine has five victories at the top level to boast of, including in this last year and her odds reflect the prospect of her making it six here.

“She is very well and we’ve been very happy with her since her last run,” Aidan O’Brien said of the 5-year-old, who will have to wait a bit longer for a rematch with the Juddmonte mare. “Magical and Japan were being trained for the King George and you’re never sure what is going to happen, but the two of them seem to have come to this weekend very well. Magical was happy to stay at home and run on a track that she knows without having to travel–it looks like the race is going to suit her lovely. She’s only had the one run this year, whereas Japan has had the two runs and the King George was a race we had our eye on with him for a long time. The Tattersalls Gold Cup is a great race to have at the Curragh, and it’s a lovely race for Magical ahead of the autumn.”

Joseph O’Brien saddles Lloyd Williams’ admirable Buckhurst (Ire) (Australia {GB}), who beat Magical’s stablemate Sir Dragonet (Ire) (Camelot {GB}) in the G3 Alleged S. over this track and trip June 27 and his level of consistency could easily see him pull off a group 1 placing. if there is a suprise package in the line-up, it could be Zhang Yuesheng’s June 12 G2 Mooresbridge S. winner Leo De Fury (Ire) (Australia {GB}) who looked a different proposition when hammering Ballydoyle’s smart Fleeting (Ire) (Zoffany {Ire}) by three lengths in that 10 1/2-furlong prep here.

Munich’s G1 Grosser Dallmayr-Preis shares the same status as the Tattersalls Gold Cup, but it will take considerably less to win which is good news for Godolphin’s Barney Roy (GB) (Excelebration {Ire}) and Chantal Regalado-Gonzalez’s Patrick Sarsfield (Fr) (Australia {GB}). The former, who took the G1 Jebel Hatta at Meydan Mar. 7, was third in the G1 Prince of Wales’s S. over this mile-and-a-quarter trip at Royal Ascot June 17, while the quick-progressing Patrick Sarsfield comes into this on the back of an authoritative success in the nine-furlong G3 Meld S. at Leopardstown July 11. “Barney Roy put up a decent performance on ground that was slower than ideal in the Prince of Wales’s Stakes,” Charlie Appleby said. “He came out of the race well and this has always been the target since. He goes into this race in good shape and a repeat of his runs so far this year should make him the one to beat.”

In Ascot’s G3 Betfred Valiant Fillies’ S. over a mile, Billesdon Brook (GB) (Champs Elysees {GB}) looks for compensation for her neck defeat in Newmarket’s G1 Falmouth S. July 10 in which she split Nazeef (GB) (Invincible Spirit {Ire}) and Terebellum (Ire) (Sea the Stars {Ire}). She encounters Lael Stable’s unbeaten and still unexposed Miss O Connor (Ire) (Roderic O’Connor {Ire}), who was last seen taking the G3 Prix Perth at Saint-Cloud in October. “It’s a lovely race for her and she’s in great nick,” trainer Richard Hannon said of Billesdon Brook. “She has run good races at Ascot and elsewhere. It’s all to do with if she’s in form on the day–if she is then she’s very hard to beat and if not she runs moderately, but we never know until a furlong and a half out. She’s a star–no matter how she runs, she’s loved at home. To have a Classic winner still in training at five is great for racing and we’re all enjoying the ride.”

Also on the card is the G3 Princess Margaret Betfred S., in which the increasingly-elusive TDN Rising Star More Beautiful (War Front) needs better ground than she encountered when ninth in the G2 Queen Mary S. at the Royal meeting June 20. Third in that contest at 100-1, Caroline Dale (GB) (Lethal Force {Ire}) has since won at Windsor July 6 and heads a two-pronged attack from the David Loughnane stable alongside the July 10 G2 Duchess of Cambridge S. third Santosha (Ire) (Coulsty {Ire}). The form of that Newmarket contest was boosted by the subsequent Listed Star S. success of the runner-up Fev Rover (Ire) (Gutaifan {Ire}) and the trainer is relishing seeing them both in action. “We only have 10 or 11 two-year-old fillies in the yard, so to have two of their calibre is fantastic,” he said.

“I would prefer not to run them against each other, but you have to train them as individuals and it’s the right race for them both,” Loughnane added. “I think they both have fantastic chances and I’m very bullish about both. They are both different fillies–Caroline wears her heart on her sleeve, bombs out of the gate and is dynamite in front and if you are good enough to pass her they’ll have to fight for it. Santosha likes to take her time and saves a bit up her sleeve–she’s very tough. She was green still at Newmarket and when she came with her run Dandalla just drifted across her a bit. She’s come on a lot, while Caroline just has so much ability. I think both are borderline on their way to being group one horses.”

At York, the Listed British Stallion Studs EBF Lyric Fillies’ S. sees Khalid Abdullah’s Franconia (GB) (Frankel {GB}) take on the older horses following her impressive success in Newbury’s Listed Abingdon Fillies’ S. The form of that 10-furlong Oaks prep has been boosted by the listed win of the runner-up Cabaletta (GB) (Mastercraftsman {Ire}) and the highly-regarded half-sister to the G1 Nassau S. heroine Winsili (GB) (Dansili {GB}) will be a warm order to cap another stellar weekend for Juddmonte. John Gosden said of the homebred, who was forced to miss the G3 Musidora S. here earlier this month, “She scoped with mucus before the Musidora. She has always been a little bit inclined that way and I just wasn’t happy with her. She is like her sister Winsili and is very full of herself at home. She is quite a character, but she seems in good form. It was a good effort to break her maiden in a listed race, but she now has to carry a penalty for that victory in this race. The race at Newbury is working out quite well.”

Franconia encounters Mohamed Khalid Abdulrahim’s highly-regarded Gold Wand (Ire) (Golden Horn {GB}), who was out of her depth and probably running over too far when a distant seventh in the July 4 G1 Epsom Oaks. Jockey Andrea Atzeni is confident she can bounce back. “I think a mile and a quarter on a flat track like York will suit her perfectly, because she won over that trip at Newbury,” he explained. “She is a filly that we like quite like. We took a chance in the Oaks, because we thought she would be competitive in that race. But it just never happened for her, as she probably didn’t have enough experience. She didn’t have a hard race in the Oaks and she came out of it fine. We are very pleased with her.”

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