Tahiyra, this year’s Irish 1000 Guineas victress (David Betts)
By Breandán Ó hUallacháin
Tahiyra (2/5f) won the Tattersalls Irish 1000 Guineas at The Curragh on Sunday, giving her trainer Dermot Weld a sixth victory in the fillies’ Group 1 and a 27th European classic.
Weld, a former Belmont Stakes-winning trainer with Go and Go in 1990, saw his star filly Tahiyra beaten into the runner-up position in the QIPCO 1000 Guineas behind Mawj at Newmarket, England, earlier this month.
An impressive winner of the Group 1 Moyglare Stud Stakes over 7 furlongs at The Curragh during Longines Irish Champions Weekend last September, Tahiyra is a daughter of Siyouni, who stands at The Aga Khan’s Haras de Bonneval Stud in France.
Tahiyra is now one of nine Group 1 winners for the French sire. It was a Guineas double for the stallion who also sired the Coolmore partners-owned Paddington, winner of the Tattersalls Irish 2000 Guineas on Saturday.
The odds-on race favourite was faster away from the starting stalls than at Newmarket and was able to take a position behind her main rival, Aidan O’Brien’s Meditate (100/30) and Ryan Moore, with both the trainer and jockey bidding for a Tattersalls Irish 2000-1000 Guineas weekend double.
With another Ballydoyle representative, Dower House, taking the field along, Chris Hayes and Tahiyra came to claim their race at the one-eight pole. Tahiyra fought out the finish with the 2022 Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies’ Turf winner Mediate, a daughter of No Nay Never, and she soon asserted to go on for a length and a half success.
The surprise of the race was the fast-finishing Jim Bolger bred, owned and trained Comhrá (150/1), ridden by Rory Cleary.
The County Wexford handler, who was bidding to win the race for the first time since Pléascach in 2015, stepped his filly up to tackle Group 1 company for the first time, having achieved two mid-division finishes in her two most recent starts. As a juvenile, she had finished just a length behind today’s runner-up Mediate, and on this occasion only a head separated the pair at the wire.
It was a second Tattersalls 1000 Guineas in-a-row for both jockey Chris Hayes and trainer Dermot Weld having claimed the first fillies’ classic of 2022 with Homeless Songs, owned by Moyglare Stud.
The 74-year-old trainer also saddled Tarawa in the one-mile Group 1 race, again in the Aga Khan’s silks, and the daughter of Shamardal finished a pleasing fourth for rider Billy Lee.
Discussing the race with the media, Dermot Weld said:
“The plan was to hold on to Tahiyra and ride her for speed. She was in a pocket, but when you have a very good horse they have the pace to get out of that pocket. I was always comfortable. My only concern was whether she would let herself down on the quick ground.
“She’s always shown it (talent), she has always been very special, and there is a lot to look forward to,” Weld added.
The Rosewell House-based conditioner suggested the Group 1 Coronation Stakes at Royal Ascot in June as the next target for Tahiyra, where she will likely clash with her Newmarket conqueror there, Mawj.
Weld, the first Northern Hemisphere trainer to win the Melbourne Cup in Australia (with Vintage Crop in 1993), has also tasted much success in the United States during his illustrious career.
The former jockey, one of Ireland’s most successful trainers, won the American Derby three times, with Pine Dance (2000), Evolving Tactics (2003) and Simple Exchange (2004). He took the Matriarch Stakes with Dress to Thrill in 2002, and both the American Oaks and the Flower Bowl Invitational Stakes the following year with Dimitrova.
The qualified veterinarian was successful in the Secretariat Stakes with Winchester in 2008, and more recently claimed the Man o’War Stakes thanks to Zhukova (2017) and the 2020 Breeders’ Cup Turf with Tarnawa.
