At just her fourth race start, Peaceful ran out the convincing winner of Saturday’s Irish 1000 Guineasd at the Curragh.
Pressing on into a clear lead two furlongs out, Peaceful galloped on strongly and, truthe be told, never looked likely to be caught, going on to defeat Fancy Blue by two lengths with So Wonderful a head away third, the favourite Albigna could only muster sixth.
It is the fourth victory in the Classic for Seamus Heffernan, who told Racing TV he was always confident.
“She had been very impressive in her homework and I did fancy her here,” Heffernan said. “She did what she was showing us at home.
I’ve got myself beaten plenty of times by trying to be clever, so I was comfortable where I was. From four down, I gradually stepped up the pace and whatever was going to get me had to
make up three lengths.
Like Love (1000 Gns, Newmarket), she’s tidy and a good mover and is definitely tough enough to go to Royal Ascot next week. She could be anything.”
It is the ninth win in the race for Aidam O’Brien who hinted the Coronation Stakes could ber next for Peaceful.
“She’s a lovely filly and we always thought a lot of her,” he said. “Her work had been lovely and when the other filly did that at Newmarket we were looking forward to today.
“She is very like Love, in that she is very uncomplicated and Seamus gave her a lovely ride. It was a big help that the ground was nice and she shouldn’t have had too hard a race.
“We’ll see what the lads want to do on Monday and although she’ll definitely get a mile and a quarter, she’s a strong uncomplicated miler who gets it well so the Coronation is possible.”
The race also marked a milestone for Peaceful’s sire Galileo, who overtook Danehill as the leading sire of Group 1 winners with 85 Group 1. Ironically his first (Nighttime) came in this race.
At 22 and with four crops still available to him, it is not inconceivable he could achieve a century of Group 1 winners before he is finished.