Ballydoyle Squad on Course for 1,000 Guineas

This weekend marks a key date on the flat racing calendar, as Newmarket plays host to the opening Classics of the 2026 campaign. The colts take centre stage in the Saturday afternoon highlight of the 2,000 Guineas, while the fillies step into the spotlight in the Sunday feature of the 1,000 Guineas.

Offering £525,000 in total prize money, the 1,000 Guineas sees a field of the most highly regarded fillies do battle over the famous Rowley Mile course at HQ.

With the race edging ever closer, 22 hopefuls remain in contention, including an eye-catching quartet from the yard of Aidan O’Brien. As ever, the market is paying the utmost respect to the Coolmore contingent, with three of those four runners filling three of the top four positions in the market.

Precise the Pick of O’Brien Team?

With seven wins to his name, Aidan O’Brien lies two behind Robert Robson at the top of the all-time 1,000 Guineas trainers’ table. If O’Brien is to bridge that gap in 2026, the market suggests that Precise is the filly most likely to take him a step closer.

On pedigree, Precise isn’t a typical Ballydoyle Classic winner. Best known as a sprinter at the track, her sire, Starspangledbanner, has yet to produce the winner of a British or Irish Classic. However, he did win the Group 1 Caulfield Guineas in the US and has sired several Group 1 winners at one mile or more, including State Of Rest, who claimed the Prince Of Wales’s Stakes in 2022 and, most significantly, Precise herself.

Four from five in her juvenile campaign, Precise backed up her maiden win at Cork with success in the Group 3 Prestige Fillies’ Stakes at Goodwood. Stepping up to Group 1 company, she then mastered her highly regarded stablemates Beautify and Composing to claim the Moyglare Stud Stakes at the Curragh.

Rocketing to the top of the Ballydoyle pecking order following that win in Ireland, Precise confirmed her status as the best in the juvenile fillies’ division with a wonderful performance in the bet365 Fillies’ Mile. In a race held over the 1,000 Guineas course and distance, the mount of Christophe Soumillon proved a cut above her Group 1 rivals en route to a comprehensive triumph by more than three lengths.

That display earned a rave review from her trainer. Comparing Precise to his 2015 Fillies’ Mile winner, Minding, who went on to win the 1,000 Guineas, the Oaks, the Pretty Polly Stakes, the Nassau Stakes, and the Queen Elizabeth II Stakes, O’Brien stated:

“That was even more impressive than Minding. Don’t get me wrong, Minding was a top filly, but this filly is different gear.”

Ominous words about a filly who currently heads the 1,000 Guineas betting at a general 9/4.

Necklace Next in Line, but Could Head to France

The market suggests that Diamond Necklace is the second best of the O’Brien quartet, and it’s hard to disagree with that assessment. A perfect three from three during her juvenile campaign, she ended 2025 with an easy win in the Group 1 Prix Marcel Boussac.

By St Mark’s Basilica, who won five Group 1 events over trips ranging from seven furlongs to 1m2f, she is appealingly bred on the sire’s side. Dam Prudenzia scored at no higher than Listed level but has already produced Group 1 winners Magic Wand and Chicquita.

Hailing from any other yard, Diamond Necklace would be an almost certain runner at Newmarket. However, such is the strength in depth of the O’Brien operation that the unbeaten filly may instead tackle the French 1,000 Guineas on Sunday, 10 May. That said, connections have left her in the 1,000 Guineas field for now, and she will rate a significant threat if lining up on the day.

Of the other O’Brien runners, outsider Venosa is out of her depth on all known form, but it may be unwise to underestimate True Love. Last season’s Queen Mary Stakes heroine handled the step up to six furlongs when winning the Railway Stakes and Cheveley Park Stakes, before rounding off her campaign with a below-par effort at the Breeders’ Cup Festival.

Having been kept to sprint trips as a juvenile, True Love was stepped up to seven furlongs for the Priory Belle Stakes on her seasonal return. If that was a test of her 1,000 Guineas potential, she passed it with flying colours. In storming up the stand’s rail to score by a length and a quarter, she thrust her name into the Guineas mix. However, like Diamond Necklace, she also has the French version of the race as an option.

Burke Leads Home Defence

Of the British runners remaining in the field, Karl Burke’s Venetian Sun is the only filly available to back at a single-figure price. By Starman and out of the speedy Johara, this Tony Bloom and Ian McAleavy runner is bred to be a sprinter. Showing both speed and class as a two-year-old, she duly won four times over six furlongs, including in the Group 1 Prix Morny. Only third behind Precise in the Moyglare Stud Stakes, the big question is how she will cope with the step up to a mile.

French raider My Highness and Charlie Appleby’s unbeaten Abashiri are other intriguing contenders in a cracking edition of the fillies’ Classic.