Aidan O’Brien, unsurprisingly, will be expected to add to his unparalleled record of success in Group 1 Irish races when he sends out two heavily favored runners Sunday at The Curragh.
True Love as of Friday was even money with English betting houses to give O’Brien his 12th win in the Irish 1000 Guineas.
O’Brien also is the winning-most trainer in the history of the Group 1 Tattersalls Gold Cup. He has 11 of those, too, and the filly Minnie Hauk is an even shorter price than True Love to capture that race.
Money poured in on True Love late this week when Ryan Moore, still probably the world’s best jockey and the longtime top stable rider for O’Brien, revealed he would ride the filly Sunday.
In the 1000 Guineas on May 3 at Newmarket, Moore piloted Precise to a seventh-place finish while Wayne Lordan rode True Love to a 1 3/4-length victory. Lordan this weekend steps aside and rides Precise, for whom O’Brien forecast second-out improvement even before the filly made her season debut in the 1000 Guineas. She will need plenty of it to make up the five lengths True Love put on her at Newmarket.
Precise was making her first start since landing the Group 1 Fillies’ Mile last Oct. 10. She shipped to Del Mar favored for the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies Turf but contracted an illness and was scratched from the race.
O’Brien opted for the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf Sprint with True Love, but, in retrospect, that five-furlong contest probably was too short for the filly. True Love won a seven-furlong Guineas prep at Leopardstown in advance of her Guineas success and had no trouble staying a mile through an uphill finish at Newmarket.
Minnie Hauk, too, raced in the Breeders’ Cup, a tame sixth as the favorite in the Turf. Her plausible excuse there was a strong second-place finish just four weeks earlier in the Prix de l’Arc de Triompe. That October contest surely lies at the heart of Minnie Hauk’s 4-year-old campaign, which began May 4 with a comfortable score over 1 1/4 miles in the Group 2 Mooresbridge at Leopardstown.
She’ll be asked Sunday to cut back to 1 3/16 miles while opposed by the sharp England shipper Saddadd. A 4-year-old trained by Roger Varian, Saddadd improved steadily while rising through handicap ranks last year and began his 2026 campaign with his best performance yet, an April 24 tally over 1 1/4 miles in the Group 3 Gordon Richards at Sandown Park.