THE feeling before the Tattersalls Irish 1000 Guineas at the Curragh last Sunday was that this year’s renewal could be a high-class renewal, and that feeling was strengthened after it was run. The right fillies came to the fore. The winner Pleascach had won the Group 3 Blue Wind Stakes at Naas on her previous run by eight and a half lengths. She had previously split Bocca Baciata, who finished fifth in Sunday’s race and Cheshire Oaks winner Diamondsandrubies in the Group 3 Salsabil Stakes.

Runner-up Found had won the Group 1 Prix Marcel Boussac last year, and had shaped encouragingly when just getting run down by the year-older Iveagh Gardens on heavy ground in the Group 3 Athasi Stakes on her debut this term. Devonshire, second to Kissed By Angels in the Guineas Trial at Leopardstown on her previous run, ran out of her skin to finish third.