Ryan Moore brings Marvellous home
Marvellous gave jockey Ryan Moore a first victory in the Gr1 Etihad Airways Irish 1,000 Guineas by cutting down 100 to 30 favourite Lightning Thunder at the Curragh on Sunday.
Trained by Aidan O’Brien, the daughter of Galileo (10 to 1) was having only the third start of her career in the Classic, having finished only sixth on her latest appearance in the Leopardstown trial on March 30th.
Lightning Thunder, agonisingly beaten by Miss France at Newmarket, ran a fine race once again but simply had no answer to the thrust of Marvellous, who shot three lengths clear.
The Olly Stevens-trained Lightning Thunder had finished fast and late on the Rowley Mile but Harry Bentley sat more prominently in mid-division as Marvellous’ stablemate, Wonderfully, made the running.
Bentley swept to the lead with a couple of furlongs remaining but Marvellous was too strong as O’Brien reached the roll of honour for the sixth time in his career.
James Doyle, who won Saturday’s 2000 Guineas on Kingman, finished third aboard the Dermot Weld-trained Vote Often.
Marvellous was subsequently slashed to around the 10 to 1 mark for the Investec Oaks.
O’Brien said: “She handled this sort of ground when she won her maiden at Navan last year. “She then had the one run this year at Leopardstown and had a bit of a break after that as, like a lot of mine, she was coughing a bit. “Joseph (O’Brien, rider of stablemate Palace) had a tough choice and he knew it was a close call, but at declaration time we didn’t think it was going to get as soft as this.
“With Marvellous, the plan was to come here and then on to Epsom. You’d have to say she’d definitely get a mile and a quarter the way she ran to the line. “She’s a nice, compact filly and I don’t think she’d have any problems handling Epsom.” www.irishtimes.com
