Seven-time Group 1 heroine Minding has been installed the 1/3 favourite for Sunday’s €300,000 Tattersalls Gold Cup at the Curragh with her trainer Aidan O’Brien responsible for six of the remaining 12 entries.
Successful with the minimum of fuss on her seasonal reappearance in the Mooresbridge Stakes, her weekend assignment over the extended 10 furlongs looks the ideal stepping stone towards a tilt at the Prince Of Wales’s Stakes on June 21 for which she is currently the 5/4 market leader.
Minding, who captured the Newmarket 1,000 Guineas and Epsom Oaks last season among her quintet of Group 1 victories, rounded off a fantastic campaign with success in the Queen Elizabeth II Stakes at Ascot last October.
Aidan O’Brien won the Tattersalls Gold Cup for the first time with Black Sam Bellamy back in 2003 and to date has racked up a total of six victories in the prestigious Group 1 contest for four-year-olds and older.
Sole British-trained entry Decorated Knight represents Roger Charlton, who won the corresponding race with Al Kazeem in 2013 and 2015, while Jim Bolger, successful with Erins isles in 1981 and Perfect Imposter in 1994, has Moonlight Magic, runner-up to Minding on his seasonal debut over three weeks ago.
Via HRI.