In Season Debut, Happily Takes Aim at 1,000 Guineas

Coolmore and Godolphin are again to the fore at Newmarket May 6, with six of the 15 declared fillies for the 205th running of the one-mile QIPCO One Thousand Guineas Stakes (G1) emanating from one of the two barns.

Aidan O'Brien saddles four for the Irish operation, headed by Moyglare Stud Stakes (G1) and Qatar Prix Jean-Luc Lagardere (G1) winner Happily. The daughter of Galileo—and the first female winner of the Lagardere since 1986—will be making her first start since the Nov. 3 Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies Turf (G1). She failed to fire at Del Mar, trailing home last of the 14 runners. O'Brien, however, is not concerned by the absence.

"Happily is in good shape. She hasn't run (this season), but she's in good form," O'Brien said. "She won a Moyglare and ran against the colts and won in France. She's a very good, professional filly with a good mind."

Happily has a very strong pedigree for the classic as a full sister to triple group 1-winning miler Gleneagles (QIPCO Two Thousand Guineas Stakes, Tattersalls Irish Two Thousand Guineas, St James's Palace Stakes). Her sire was responsible for the previous two winners of the race in Minding and Winter (both from the O'Brien/Coolmore connections). Ryan Moore jets back from Kentucky overnight to take the ride.

I Can Fly broke her maiden on debut at Dundalk in September, before backing up two weeks later and finishing third in the Godolphin Lifetime Care Oh So Sharp Stakes (G3) at Newmarket. The Fastnet Rock filly returned to action at Leopardstown last month with another third place in the Ballylinch Stud Priory Belle One Thousand Guineas Trial Stakes (G3) and all three of her career starts have been over seven furlongs.  

"I Can Fly ran twice as a 2-year-old and then we ran her at Leopardstown (in the Trial). She's experienced enough too, we think." O'Brien said. Seamie Heffernan rides.  

O'Brien's other pair are group 3-placed Sizzling and maiden winner Sarrocchi. 

Godolphin's assault on the race comes in the form of the Charlie Appleby-trained duo Soliloquy and Wild Illusion. Soliloquy returned to the track with a stylish victory in last month's Lanwades Stud Nell Gwyn Stakes (G3), run over the final seven furlongs of the Guineas trip, having rounded out her juvenile career by breaking her maiden second time up in a minor stakes race over a mile at Ascot. The last winner of the Nell Gwyn to go and take out the big prize was Speciosa back in 2006.

Wild Illusion lost her maiden tag at Yarmouth last August, then ran third in a Chantilly group 3, before rounding out her juvenile campaign by stepping up and landing the Total Prix Marcel Boussac (G1) on Arc day at Chantilly. All three of the daughter of Dubawi's runs have been over a mile. She gets the assistance of regular pilot James Doyle, while Soliloquy will be ridden by William Buick.  

Speaking of the pair this week, Appleby said, "We're very happy with both fillies. William rode Soliloquy in the Nell Gwyn and rode her in plenty of work before that. He was always very happy with her and she shows more pace than Wild Illusion, but Wild Illusion has never been a work horse, so it was a hard decision for him.

"Visually, on race evidence, Soliloquy has got a bit more of a pace angle, whereas with Wild Illusion we are working back from an Oaks with her. Wild Illusion is ready to run and she brings group 1 form into the race."

Karl Burke has never tasted Classic success, but has handled the careers of plenty of good horses down the years and is responsible for bet365 Fillies' Mile (G1) winner Laurens. That race—run over the same course and distance as the Guineas since 2011—is often a good trial, with Minding the last filly to do the double in 2016. P J McDonald, aboard for all four career starts to date, takes the reigns again.  

Burke said: "She's a well-balanced filly for one who is so big and who has such a massive stride. Now she's that bit stronger, if she can keep that great gallop up, it's going to be a good horse that gets by her."