Cassie Tully assesses the pedigrees for the Irish 2000 Guineas

11 horses have been declared for Friday’s Tattersalls Irish 2000 Guineas, and while Aidan O’Brien saddles six of those contenders, the favourite remains Ger Lyons’ unbeaten Phoenix Stakes winner Siskin.

So far in the past week two other unbeaten Group One winners of 2019, Pinatubo and Quadrilateral, have been beaten favourites on their three-year-old debuts in the QIPCO 2000 and 1000 Guineas respectively. The focus therefore now turns to Siskin and his bid to add another ‘1’ to the so far unblemished line of them beside his name.

He is the only Group One winner in this field and yet another example of generations of pedigree nurturing and cultivating within the Juddmonte operation. Stemming from one of their foundation mares Monroe, he is out of homebred Bird Flown, who is by homebred sire Oasis Dream. Siskin’s sire is then another homebred, First Defence.

First Defence ran in the USA before retiring to Juddmonte’s American base and although a Grade One winner at four years, he did not prove popular.

Covering 86 mares in his first year, that figure diminished nearly every year when eventually, in 2016, with four crops of racing age and just four Group winners including multiple Group One winner Close Hatches, he covered only 35 mares and was sold to Saudi Arabia.

Siskin arose from that final crop in America which now consists of nine runners and two other winners.

Having run solely over six furlongs to date, the big question for Siskin remains whether he will deal with stretching out another two furlongs at a mile against the Galileos.

His sire won his Group One over seven furlongs but did also win a Listed event at three over a mile. And two of First Defence’s other top performers, Close Hatches and Lockdown, are also close relations to Siskin and both multiple Group One performers over eight-and-a-half and nine furlongs.

His dam Bird Flown, won one race over seven furlongs but placed over a mile and she is a half sister to Barsanti who won a Listed race over a mile-and-a-half.

While there are some top sprinters throughout his pedigree. including damsire Oasis Dream, there is plenty of evidence of successful performances at a mile and further. Even when delving into third dam Monroe, her best son was the champion Xaar, who won two Group One races over seven furlongs, yet was successful in a Group Three over a mile and placed second in the Coral-Eclipse Stakes over ten.

There is no reason, on paper at least, why Siskin won't win at the Guineas trip.

Aside from the favourite, the rest of the field is exploding with blue-blooded talents including one of the best pedigree pages in the stud book.

Those with no question marks on their staying ability is the army from Ballydoyle. Aidan O’Brien has won this race a record 11 times and going by jockey bookings, it is actually the Lope De Vega colt Lope Y Fernandez that leads the way this time around.

Lope De Vega is the sire that provided last year’s winner Phoenix of Spain and his representative this year was purchased for €900,000 as a yearling at Arqana. He won a Group Three last term before running sixth in the Middle Park Stakes behind Earthlight, in which Siskin was withdrawn due to his unruly behaviour in the stalls.

Galileo, who has sired four previous winners of this race, supplies us with not only the two runners of his own Armory and Vatican City, but also a grandson through Gleneagles and he is damsire of four of the other runners.

Armory is just the second live foal from French 1000 Guineas placed After, who also represents that Galileo over Danehill Dancer cross that has given us the likes of Minding, Circus Maximus, The Gurkha, Alice Springs and Soveriegn.

He has three wins including the Group Two EBF Futurity Stakes under his belt as well as placing in three Group Ones after that. Those efforts were behind Pinatubo in the National Stakes and Victor Ludorum and Alson in the Prix Jean Luc Lagardere and Criterium International on very soft and heavy ground. That form has stacked up quite well so far in France and combined with his pedigree, Armory cannot be overlooked.

Padraig Beggy, who has now won two Classics on outsiders for Ballydoyle from very few rides, takes the mount on Vatican City. Although only raced twice, winning his maiden in Dundalk, it is impossible to ignore one of the best pedigree pages in the world.

Vatican City is a Galileo son out of the Group Two-winning Storm Cat mare You’resothrilling, with very big shoes to fill.

Every one of You’resothrilling’s previous five runners have performed at Group One level. This colt is a full brother to four-time Group One and dual Guineas winner Gleneagles, dual Group One winner Happily, Irish 1000 Guineas heroine Marvellous and the Group One placed Coolmore and Taj Mahal.

On pedigree at least, it would be anything but a surprise to see Beggy steal the show again with this Guineas-loving family underneath him.

The Guineas winning sister to Vatican City, Marvellous, also has her second foal running here under Michael Hussey. Fort Myers is a Listed-winning War Front colt, with some Group form behind Siskin and Lope Y Fernandez.

The list of runners with famous relatives does not end there.

With their first three-year-olds this year, Gleneagles, American Pharoah and Make Believe have one representative each.

Royal Lytham is the Gleneagles son who was only a length behind Siskin in the Phoenix Stakes last year. His dam is a Listed winner from the family of Fillies Mile heroine Glorosia.

The son of American Triple Crown winner American Pharoah, Monarch of Egypt, was a quarter length closer to Siskin in that same race but disappointed in his following two Group One starts. His dam is a Galileo half-sister to Dutch Art.

Finsceal Rules is Jim Bolger’s sole runner and son of French Guineas winner Make Believe. He has only started once and was a head second to last weekend’s British 2000 Guineas runner-up Wichita. He stems from the family of 14-time Group One winner Goldikova.

And finally, if there wasn’t enough quality in the field to pore over, Kingman, the 2014 winner of this race, is represented by The Aga Khan’s Sinawann. He is a Group Two placed colt out of a half-sister to dual Derby and Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe winner Sinndar.

In addition Jessica Harrington saddles Free Solo, a five-length maiden winner by Showcasing who is the first foal out of a daughter of triple Group One winner Six Perfections, from that family of Miesque, Kingmambo and other big names.

Siskin remains the intriguing prospect to beat in this quality-packed field, but every runner in the betting behind him boasts strong family backing for top-level success.

He has no excuses on pedigree for not getting the mile and despite no overseas runners, we are in for a fascinating renewal of the Irish 2000 Guineas.

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