Tattersalls Irish 2000 Guineas reaction: Graham Cunningham from the track

Young maestro John steals the show as Gstaad forges to Irish Guineas glory

The Race Is On.

The Stage Is Set.

And The Maestro Is Ready.

Three big promotional hoardings on the drive leading up to the Curragh set the stage perfectly for the man, sorry boy, of the hour.

And little John Magnier – son of MV and grandson of the man who helped make Coolmore the world’s most influential racing and breeding operation – steals the show after GSTAAD’s dominant success in the Tattersalls Irish 2,000 Guineas.

Young John is just one day on from his First Communion and RTE’s intrepid reporter Brian Gleeson – who still has his communion money according to my Irish moles – bends low for the inside scoop.

And John, serious as a deacon and sporting a splendid rosette and suit that gives him the look of a nine-year-old politician waiting nervously on election night, delivers in style by saying “it’s not going to happen again, this day isn’t happening again.”

Maybe it isn’t, but Gstaad is all business once Ryan Moore gets him fully motivated, forging three lengths clear of old rival Distant Storm and setting up a rematch with his Newmarket conqueror Bow Echo in the St James’s Palace Stakes next month.

Bookmakers make Bow Echo even money to confirm Newmarket form in Royal Ascot’s Tuesday showpiece, with Gstaad at 5/2 and French Guineas winner Rayif at 8/1 for the battle of three Classic winners.

Those prices look hard to argue with and Bow Echo plainly leads the three-year-old miling division at this stage, but picture the scene in just over three weeks’ time.

A smallish field heads to post and Puerto Rico, a dual G1 winner himself, is on deck to ensure a pace that is even yet not so strong as to set things up for a late swooper.

Gstaad hovers on his stablemate’s shoulder from the off, perhaps even sneaking up a welcome gap his inner off the home turn, and then it’s a case of ‘may the best man win.’

Curragh hero Field Of Gold reversed Newmarket form with Ruling Court in last year’s SJP, while Rosallion took his revenge on Notable Speech at Ascot in 2024 having played second fiddle to him on the first Saturday in May.

Now that’s a dangerously small sample, of course, but Moore hit the Gstaad nail on the head by saying “we have our work cut out but the only thing is you’d hope is that he’s progressing.”

We’ve been here so often with Aidan O’Brien horses who draw strength from repeated visits to the G1 furnace.

Gstaad is thriving physically and Aidan reports that Ryan feels a return to the scene of his commanding Coventry Stakes success is an added plus.

So it might be best to clear your diaries for a right royal battle on June 16th.

The bold John says this day isn’t happening again, but maybe it is.

And if Gstaad gets first run as his leadout guy starts to falter in that unforgiving Ascot straight, then maybe it will be even better than Communion Friday and Irish Guineas Saturday all rolled into one.

Purview stamps his authority for an old master

Plans to make this week’s File a hybrid piece combining Curragh highlights with best of the UK action were scuppered by events at Haydock and, for all that force majeure may have been at play, the Bush League feel to some key elements of British racing is getting increasingly hard to ignore.

Fortunately, the Curragh supporting card compensated in style with performances from a handful of horses with the potential to make a splash in good company this season.

Rugged scrapper CAUSEWAY isn’t the best colt to ever win the Gallinule Stakes – Alleged and the mighty Ardross are 10-11 each of two in that heat- but he refused to be denied as Zia Zabel came to call and Aidan has now won this G3 contest twenty, yes twenty, times in the last 30 years.

The globetrotting COMANCHE BRAVE dominated smart rivals in the G2 Greenlands Stakes, punching a ticket for the QEII Jubilee Stakes and making this reporter think ‘what manner of beast is this KA YING RISING?’ given the way the world’s best sprinter treated Donnacha’s doughty colt in last month’s Chairman’s Sprint Prize at sha Tin.

Comanche Brave and Causeway were two of four winners on the card sired by Wootton Bassett, providing another poignant reminder of what a loss that stallion is to Coolmore and breeding in general, but the award for Best Supporting Actor on Irish Guineas Day goes to a bloke who started training over twenty years before Aidan came along.

Dermot Weld doesn’t have a runner when Aidan comes back to the home of Irish racing to saddle G1 aces like Minnie Hauk, True Love and Precise on Sunday.

The 77-year-old master of Rosewell House doesn’t have the depth of talent he once had - and he’s another who might still have his Communion money - but PURVIEW sauntered clear of a useful field in the Orby Stakes and this lightly raced Kingman colt might just be the one to light up the autumn of a Hall of Fame training career.

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