25-05-2025
Lake Victoria bounces back to land 1,000 Guineas spoils at the Curragh
Aidan O'Brien's insistence that the Newmarket 1000 Guineas would come too soon for Lake Victoria was proven in the extreme when the filly ran out a tremendously impressive winner of the Tattersalls Irish 1,000 Guineas on Sunday afternoon at the Curragh.
Ryan Moore, who was bidding for a fourth winner of the afternoon, had his mount in the box seat from an early stage as California Dreamer set the fractions. If there was one moment of anxiety for connections, it was as Moore asked his mount to move past Duty First, who kept Lake Victoria in for just a second.
Once in the clear, Moore engaged that drive position which inevitably results in winners, and she responded to it by charging past California Dreamer and on to a two-and-a-quarter-length victory. The long-time leader held on to second place quite comfortably, with Cercene running a huge race to get up late for third place for trainer Joe Murphy.
'She was very good today,' said Moore of the filly who was sixth in the English Guineas. 'She wasn't quite there when she went well at Newmarket, but she's a lot better than them. She quickened up very well — she's a very smart filly. She's exciting, she does everything beautifully. Her record last year was very good, and I'm glad she was able to get back on track.
'She's very good and she'll be very hard for the fillies to handle. We'll see what she does the next day, but we haven't got to the bottom of her, so hopefully she can step up again.'
O'Brien, for whom she was a third winner of the day and sixth of the three-day meeting, was over the moon.
'She went to Newmarket only getting ready for a racecourse gallop, and Ryan looked after her. She came out of it lovely. Everything went well — it doesn't always, from run to run — but we knew if everything was going to go well, she was going to make massive leaps, and that's what she did.
'She's one of those special ones. She won a Group 1 over six, seven and a mile as a two-year-old, and she travelled the world. She's very unique. The plan was to come here and then go to the Coronation.'
The day's other Group 1 was the Tattersalls Gold Cup, and O'Brien and Moore also came out on top, though this one was far more competitive at the finish.
With the missed break of the pacemaker, the wayward tendencies of another, the lack of room for a couple, and the general rough and tumble, a weighty tome could emerge from a brilliant renewal of the race.
What did arise but was not news to anyone with an iota of knowledge of the sport was that Los Angeles is teak-tough and borderline impossible to beat when a race boils down to a one-on-one battle.
And while connections of White Birch may rue the luckless run of their horse, who won this in 2024, and those of Kalpana may curse her luck, some of which was of her own making, a doughty winner was called for and Los Angeles responded.
In a pulsating finish, he had a worthy opponent in last season's British Champion Stakes winner Anmaat, but once again he managed to dig in deep and this time it earned him a third Group 1.
'The big fella — Los Angeles — I thought that was the best he's ever been,' said Moore. 'I thought it was a proper horse race. The second horse put it up to him, and Kalpana and White Birch were right there, so I think it was a very solid race. People say he's tough and he's hardy, but he's pretty good as well.'
In his future, there could be the Prince Of Wales's Stakes, the King George, an Arc Trial and the Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe, should all go well.
The Moore-O'Brien team also took the Group 3 GAIN Marble Hill Stakes with the physically imposing Albert Einstein. All did not go to plan, and the 4-11 chance raced keenly, but he showed class in abundance to pick off Power Blue and Andab close home.
'We always thought he was very special,' admitted the trainer. 'He's probably as fast a horse as we've ever seen work. We thought, at home, that he would be fine with six, seven or a mile, and still could be, but Ryan said he's very quick.
'The plan was to come here and go to the Coventry. I think there's a lot to come from him. He's very exciting. From the first day he worked, we felt he was very different.'
