The Group I Irish 2,000 Guineas (1m) was run at the Curragh overnight on heavy ground producing a quinella for Jim Bolger bred and trained colts with New Approach colt Mac Swiney defeating Dawn Approach colt Poetic Flare, who won the Newmarket 2,000 Guineas.
There was a short head between the stablemates at the finish with more than three lengths back to American Pharoah colt Van Gogh in third pale with Yulong owned Lucky Vega, who will stand at stud in Victoria this spring finishing fourth.
A Group I winner last season winning the Doncaster Futurity Trophy, Mac Swiney has the overall record of four wins from eight starts and will progress to the Epsom Derby.
“He loves that sort of ground,” Bolger said of Mac Swiney, who rebounded after a disappointing fourth in the Derrinstown Stud Derby Trial on his seasonal return.
“I wasn’t 100 per cent sure, but I didn’t want to take a horse all the way to Epsom and not be happy with him.
“The discharge cleared up last weekend and I worked him on Monday. He worked nicely and he was very perky in himself after, so I felt then that it was safe to come here with him.”
Notable for being the first stakes-winner anywhere in the world to have a double cross of Galileo, MacSwiney is the second winner from unraced Teofilo mare Halla Na Saoire, a full sister to Group II winner Light Heavy and three-quarter sister-in-blood to Teofilo’s Group I winner Parish Hall.
To date there have been 19 winners to carry a double cross of Galileo from 46 runners with Mac Swiney still the only stakes-winner.
