Racing: Rock repeats O'Brien's winning formula

Ballydoyle team again prove different class as Ferguson's colt completes a Classic double Sue Montgomery

If the current Ferrari operation is turning the grand prix circuit into a series of exhibition rounds, the same could be said of the Aidan O'Brien-trained horsepower emerging from Ballydoyle, Co Tipperary. But at least Michael Schumacher has to change gear occasionally. All Mick Kinane did yesterday in the 82nd Irish 2,000 Guineas was put Rock Of Gibraltar in drive, point him in the right direction and release the brake.

It is rarely that a Classic is won with such contemptuous ease. The winning distance was only a length and a half, but Rock Of Gibraltar did not come off the bridle for a single stride and will have worked harder on the gallops in the morning. Once Kinane had dealt with his mount's slight over-enthusiasm early in the piece and settled him behind the six rivals, who were led by his pacemaker Nostradamus, there was going to be only one result. At the furlong marker, the powerful bay threaded his way between Ahsanabad and Foreign Accent and 100 yards later cantered over the heavy ground past his hard-driven stablemate, Century City, with his ears pricked and his rider motionless, apart from the twitch of his hands where he let out half an inch of rein.

The usual clutch of records and statistics associated with O'Brien attended Rock Of Gibraltar's victory. The colt was the fifth winner of the 2,000 Guineas at Newmarket to follow up at the Curragh, after Right Tack (1969), Don't Forget Me (1987), Tirol (1990) and Rodrigo de Triano (1992), and the first trained in Ireland so to do.

O'Brien is now the only man to have trained the winners of the three major European Guineas, having taken the French version two weeks ago with another son of Danehill, Landseer. It was his 17th European Classic, his fourth Irish 2,000 in six runnings – after Desert King (1997), Saffron Walden (1991) and Black Minnaloushe (2001). With Della Francesca taking third place, it was also his fourth clean sweep in a Group One contest and his second in a row in this race.

Kinane, who was serving a suspension when Rock Of Gibraltar won on the Rowley Mile, had little to say but the obvious. "He's a very high-class colt," the jockey affirmed. "His colours are going to be hard to lower over a mile this year."

The red-and-white silks of part-owner Sir Alex Ferguson will next be seen at Royal Ascot, when Rock Of Gibraltar goes for his fifth successive Group One win – the Dewhurst Stakes and Grand Critérium came last year – in the St James' Palace Stakes.

The only surprise yesterday was the colt's generous price in a contest with only three token opponents to the Ballydoyle quartet. On offer at 1-4 during the week, he had drifted to 4-7 by the off and, had punters been privy to recent events on the Ballydoyle wood-chip, he would have been a penalty kick. "He had come on nicely since Newmarket," said O'Brien, who had let the three eldest of his young children touch Rock Of Gibraltar's nose for luck as he came in off the track. "He was doing his work easily and he looked stronger."

Today brings the prospect of a third Guineas double in six years for O'Brien, who launched his Classic haul in the Irish 1,000 Guineas with Classic Park in 1995 and added his second filly race last year with Imagine.

In this afternoon's 81st edition, he sends five into battle, with Quarter Moon the most fancied. If Kinane can harness the light-framed, hot-headed filly's nervous energy, she must go close. She recovered well from a bad stumble in the Newmarket 1,000 Guineas to finish fifth, just a length and a half behind the winner, Kazzia, and has a pedigree that suggests she should be able to cope with a stamina-sapping slog in the mud.

Alasha, third on the Rowley Mile, Gossamer, the disappointing favourite that day in eighth, and ninth-placed Maryinsky come on from Newmarket. Alasha has never encountered soft, let alone heavy, ground but little Gossamer, who won last year's Fillies' Mile at Ascot in a bog, should revel in it. She is likely to start favourite for a Guineas once again, but may be compromised in her second season by her tiny size.

Zenda, winner of the French version of the race, the Poule d'Essai des Pouliches, and outsider Red Rioja complete the challenge from Britain. Zenda excelled herself by stepping up from a maiden win to take the Longchamp contest on soft ground. Red Rioja also showed she could act on soft when winning at the Curragh last year.

But for all the exciting potential of the three-year-old generation, the focus will equally be on their elders today, as Nayef, winner of the Dubai Sheema Classic in March, and Tobougg, whom he beat narrowly in the Champion Stakes last autumn, renew rivalry in the Group One Tattersalls Gold Cup at the Curragh.

Yesterday's domestic fare was largely run-of-the mill. In Newmarket's feature, the King Charles II Stakes, Millennium Dragon earned his ticket to the Jersey Stakes at Royal Ascot, while at Haydock Kieren Fallon, who rides Ballingarry for Team Ballydoyle in the Italian Derby in Rome this afternoon, was hero and villain, winning the Silver Bowl on Common World and later earning a two-day ban.