True Love stuns Guineas field, gives O'Brien eighth 1000 Guineas win
True Love overturned 9-5 favourite Precise at Newmarket, giving Aidan O’Brien his eighth 1000 Guineas and sharpening the Oaks picture.
Aidan O’Brien’s supposed second string turned the fillies’ division upside down at Newmarket, as True Love swept past the market leaders to win the Betfred 1000 Guineas and throw the Oaks picture wide open. Wayne Lordan delivered the 5/1 shot with conviction, beating Evolutionist by 1¾ lengths in a field of 19 on good to firm ground, while the 9-5 favourite and stablemate Precise could manage only seventh.
The winning time, 1m 35.14s, underlined how decisively True Love handled the mile. She had already advertised her class by taking the Irish 1,000 Guineas Trial at Leopardstown, and this was a far bigger stage on which she banished stamina doubts in style. Venetian Lace took third, but the race belonged to the filly many had not even seen as the stable’s first choice.
For O’Brien, it was his eighth victory in the 1000 Guineas, a haul that moved him within one win of the race record and reinforced the depth of his Classic team at the start of the Flat season. For Lordan, it was a third Guineas success, adding to earlier wins on Winter in 2017 and Hermosa in 2019. The result also sharpened the long-running debate about market confidence versus stable intent, with Precise carrying the weight of favouritism and True Love doing the damage when it mattered.
O’Brien was suitably emphatic after the race, describing True Love as a “monster” and praising the filly’s class and stamina. That assessment now carries serious weight for the rest of the campaign, because this was not just a surprise winner but a filly that stayed the mile strongly and finished with authority. With the Oaks only the next major target on the Classic calendar, True Love has already moved herself to the front of the conversation.
Her pedigree adds another layer to the story. Bred by Coolmore, she is by No Nay Never out of Alluringly, who finished third in the Oaks, and she is a half-sister to Group 2 winner Truly Enchanting. That combination of speed, stamina and Classic blood makes True Love more than a Guineas upset; it makes her a live force in a division that suddenly looks much less settled than it did before the stalls opened at Newmarket.
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