A Mind Of Her Own

“It's not the Derby,” said Ryan Moore after riding Snow Fairy (Ire) (Intikhab) to victory for his first win in the Investec Oaks back in 2010. Though hardly unseasoned, Snow Fairy came into the Oaks as a 9/1 shot with a win in the Listed Height Of Fashion S. to her name. With Minding (Ire) (Galileo {Ire}) it was quite a different story, and delivering a Classic double for the stable which has provided him with so many top-level opportunities will have doubtless given Moore cause for satisfaction, even if he prefers not to sing it from the rooftops.

A Group 1-winning juvenile and already a 1,000 Guineas victrix, the filly has outstripped her hopefully named contemporaries Ballydoyle (Ire) and Coolmore (Ire) in giving the entwined racing and breeding operations which bear those titles yet more Classic success. Just the margin of a head, her own starting-stalls sinus injury and unfavourable going prevented a hat-trick of Group 1 wins in a month when Minding was narrowly outpointed by the plucky Jet Setting (Ire) (Fast Company {Ire}) in the Irish 1,000 Guineas.

Moore never surrenders to the post-race antics of his more flamboyant weighing-room colleague Frankie Dettori, who, for at least half a furlong must have felt he was about to deliver a second Classic win of the season to Hugo Palmer when the easy travelling Architecture (Ire) (Zoffany {Ire}) cruised to the lead with a little more than two furlongs left to run. But the ice-cool manner in which Moore extracted Minding from trouble on the rails as Australian Queen (Ire) (Fastnet Rock {Ire}) dropped back through the field, giving her time to gather herself before launching her attack, was enough to remind us that it's what happens on the track that matters most, and in that regard, Moore rarely fails.

In his link-up with Aidan O'Brien, he has ample weaponry at his disposal to exhibit his talents and in Minding especially, he has the privilege of riding a filly with courage to match her unquestionable ability.

“I got a bit smashed up on the rail for a bit but her class got us out of trouble,” said Moore of the incident which would have stopped lesser individuals in their tracks. To regain her rhythm and unleash a killer turn of foot to reel in Architecture after she stole a march on the pack stands Minding apart as a distaffer of rare talent. When coupled with a jockey of equal standing and unfailing confidence in his mount, the results are devastating.

“I had no doubt that she was the best filly and the best fillies get you out of trouble, Moore continued. “I never felt the race was slipping away––I knew she had the class to win. She's had three races in a month and she outfought and outstayed them.”

When Aidan O'Brien was quizzed as to whether he would attempt to emulate Oh So Sharp (GB) (Kris), the last winner of the fillies' Triple Crown in 1985, by setting Minding for the St Leger, he looked across at her co-owner Michael Tabor and laughed. The Leger is clearly not in the team's game plan but there are plenty of other high-class options for Minding, with the Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe a distinct possibility as an end-of-season target.

“I spoke to Ryan and he feels her best trip is probably a mile and a quarter but he said we shouldn't rule out the Arc,” said O'Brien.

“She gave her all at the Curragh (in the Irish 1,000 Guineas). Adrian Keatley's filly kept coming at her but she kept trying and I don't think she realised she hadn't won. She is very well named as the best thing about her is her mind. She has a really strong mind and she was very relaxed today.”

While Minding's dam Lillie Langtry (Ire) (Danehill Dancer {Ire}) was seen to best effect over a mile, the stamina imparted by her Derby-winning sire has enabled her versatility.

“Galileo is an incredible influence for stamina,” opined O'Brien, who knows more about training the champion sire's stock than anyone else on the planet. “And if they don't have the stamina he gives them courage.”

The speculation that has built over the last few weeks that Minding would take on the colts in the Derby instead of sticking to her own sex for the Classics was downplayed by Tabor as little more than media hype.

“It was never an issue,” he said. “I'm a purist. I like the fillies to run against the fillies and colts against colts.”

Having more than shown her mettle in the fillies' division now, however, Minding will almost certainly be tested in open company, with the G1 Coral Eclipse S. and the Arc both possibilities. As her stable-mate Found (Ire) (Galileo {Ire}) proved only last season when beating Derby winner Golden Horn (GB) (Cape Cross {Ire}) in the GI Longines Breeders' Cup Turf, there's a time and a place to take on the boys. Neither her trainer nor her sporting trio of owners are likely to shirk major challenges as the season progresses, and in her regular rider, who has the big-race temperament to match her own, comes a meeting of minds to test the very best.