Cheveley Park Stakes heroine True Love overcame a wide draw and a Group 1 penalty to make a perfect start to her three-year-old campaign in the Ballylinch Stud Priory Belle Stakes.

With the draw and penalty going against her at Leopardstown, Aidan O’Brien’s leading hope was sent off joint-favourite with Paddy Twomey’s Group 3 winner Black Caviar Gold, the latter already proven over the seven-furlong trip.

Previously successful in the Queen Mary Stakes and Railway Stakes, True Love’s sprint experience showed when breaking smartly under Ryan Moore, allowing her to take a prominent position behind stablemate Composing. Moore came wide in the straight, his mount running on well up the stands’ rail to score by a length and a quarter.

The Danny McLoughlin-trained Magny Cours (28/1) ran a fine race in second, finishing a length and three quarters ahead of Joe Murphy’s Pivotal Attack.

“She’s a big, pacey mare,” the trainer reflected. “Whether she’ll get the mile is hard to know, but Ryan said she went through the race very easily and travelled well, so he was happy with her.”

On whether she might line up in the British or French classic, O’Brien commented: “Anytime we won the Newmarket Guineas, they always ran here. So it’s definitely a possibility, and it also depends on what Diamond Necklace and Precise do.”

Bookmarkers reacted by shortening True Love from 12/1 to 8/1 for the 1000 Guineas.