How good was Homeless Songs? Expert view on Irish 1,000 Guineas

Just how good was Homeless Songs?

Andrew Asquith: The betting suggested that the 2022 Irish 1000 Guineas was relatively open, but Homeless Songs looked pure class as she turned the race into a procession.

From around halfway your eye was drawn to how powerfully she was travelling, and she was still on the bridle while all of her rivals were in trouble approaching the final furlong.

The push-button acceleration she showed when Chris Hayes asked her to extend was really impressive and she is clearly a very smart filly.

Homeless Songs holds an entry in the Coronation Stakes at Royal Ascot next month for which she is now as short as 7/4 in the betting and, on this evidence, she will head there as the filly they all have to beat.

Adam Houghton: Inspiral and Tenebrism were expected to take high rank among the three-year-old fillies this spring, but things haven’t worked out for that pair as yet.

Tenebrism, only eighth when sent off favourite for the 1000 Guineas at Newmarket, now looks set for a sprinting campaign after she didn’t feature among the 14 runners for the Irish 1,000 Guineas at the Curragh on Sunday, while Inspiral is yet to be sighted on a racecourse in 2022, with all roads now leading to the Coronation Stakes at Royal Ascot.

Without that pair, Cachet has done her best to fill the vacancy for a star three-year-old filly with victory at Newmarket followed by a narrow defeat at Longchamp, but so far as auditions go, it’s fair to say that Homeless Songs did a much better impression of a high-class miler when winning at the Curragh on Sunday, putting a big field to the sword in emphatic fashion.

Always travelling strongly in the second half of the field, Homeless Songs moved up to challenge inside the final two furlongs and it was soon all over as a contest once she was asked for her effort by Chris Hayes, the official winning margin of five and a half lengths by no means flattering her superiority.

The Coronation Stakes will provide a stiffer test of Homeless Songs' credentials, with Inspiral and Cachet both likely to be lying in wait, but one has a long absence to overcome and the other simply doesn’t look as classy as Dermot Weld’s filly.

Now as short as 15/8 with Sky Bet in the ante-post betting for the Coronation, Homeless Songs would certainly be my idea of the likeliest winner of that Group One as things stand, her style of racing likely to be very well suited to the test that Ascot provides.

Beyond that, she promises to add plenty of intrigue to a miling division already stacked with talent in the shape of Baaeed, Coroebus, Native Trail and co.

Matt Brocklebank: Cachet battled at Newmarket to win by a neck, Mangoustine scrambled home by a head at ParisLongchamp, and Homeless Songs danced to a five and a half-length victory at the Curragh.

On top of that, she’s beaten the right horse in Tuesday who was hot on the heels of Cachet when third at HQ at the start of the month and helps us knit the whole form together.

Frankel’s progeny generally aren’t known for their rapid turn of foot but here we have a special talent in Homeless Songs and she remains open to further improvement after Sunday’s first attempt at the mile trip.

It’ll take something extraordinary to defeat her at the Royal meeting as you’d think that course configuration might suit even better than the Curragh. She’s extremely exciting and immediately has one anticipating a potential clash with Baaeed at some stage, albeit much further down the line.

Who is the horse to take from Sunday's race?

Andrew Asquith: Once again, Tuesday – who started favourite – shaped as though she is ready for a step up in trip, ridden more positively than in the British equivalent at Newmarket, but she was unable to find that extra gear as the winner flew past her.

It is testament to her ability that she was able to box on in the final 100 yards to seal the runner-up spot and she will be an exciting filly once stepping up to middle distances later in the season. A sister to Minding, who won the 1000 Guineas and the Oaks, she should relish the significantly longer trip that the latter race presents, and she will surely take her chance at Epsom at the beginning of next month provided she comes out of this race well.

Adam Houghton: The Aidan O’Brien-trained pair who followed Homeless Songs home, Tuesday and Concert Hall, give the form a very solid look - substance to go with the style. Concert Hall arguably ran a better Oaks trial than her more highly touted stablemate.

Matt Brocklebank: Having recommended Concert Hall for Epsom a fortnight ago I couldn’t help but be encouraged by her fast-finishing third in the hands of Wayne Lordan.

Granted, she’ll have to turn the tables on stablemate Tuesday if the pair of them now head for the Cazoo Oaks but that looks distinctly possible given she’ll step up again for a crack at a mile and a half. Her dam Was actually won the Oaks and while Emily Upjohn is the obvious one for Classic glory next Friday, Concert Hall looks pretty nimble on her feet and could really take the tricky camber at Epsom.

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