Aidan O’Brien and Frankie Dettori teamed up for QIPCO 1000 Guineas glory with Mother Earth at Newmarket on Sunday.
The 10-1 chance lined up for the fillies’ Classic having landed just one of her eight races as a two-year-old, although her placed efforts in the Fillies’ Mile and at the Breeders’ Cup in the autumn gave her solid claims on form.
She was giving O’Brien his seventh win in the race - and fifth in the past six runnings - and Dettori his fourth.
Dettori, 50, was capping a wonderful weekend for senior riders in the weighing-room. Only on Saturday, 54-year-old Kevin Manning had landed the 2000 Guineas on Poetic Flare.
O'Brien's three runners in the 2000 Guineas had all failed to figure but normal service was resumed here in a renewal where there were no hard-luck stories. The Ballydoyle maestro has now won 39 British Classics, to add to the 45 achieved in Ireland.
Mother Earth won at the main expense of Saffron Beach (9-1), trained by Jane Chapple-Hyam, with bargain buy Fev Rover (22-1) third and Santa Barbara, stablemate of the winner, fourth.
The placed horses, representing owners without anything like the power of Coolmore, would have filled their respective connections with great pride.
Santa Barbara, who lined up having won only a maiden, had been a massive market mover in recent weeks but was easy to back on the day, drifting out to 5-2.
By contrast, Alcohol Free was all the rage in the market and ended up sharing favouritism with her. However, she had to settle for fifth.
