Paddy Twomey (left) with stable jockey Billy Lee© Photo Healy Racing
Paddy Twomey is in an enviable position as he considers where to send Guineas hopefuls One Look and Purple Lily.
Both fillies ran twice as two-year-olds and both showed a great deal of promise when winning their respective starts in good style.
One Look, a Gleneagles bay out of a Holy Roman Emperor mare called Holy Salt, made her debut in the Goffs Million at the Curragh last September having been purchased as a yearling via the auction house for €65,000.
There she faced a field of expensive purchases but made light work of them all when powering to a six-length success over seven furlongs and pocketing just shy of 10 times her purchase price as the first place purse was €610,000.
Earmarked as a top prospect for the 2024, One Look started her campaign in a Cork auction race and maintained her reputation with an easy three-length victory there.
“That was a good starting point for her, she won the Goffs Million last year and I was keen to get another run into her,” Twomey said.
“She went there ready to run and acquitted herself well in the circumstances, on the heavy ground, she’ll go for one of the Guineas in England or Ireland.
“Over the next few days we’ll make a decision on who goes where when we’ve run most of them.”
Purple Lily, who is by Calyx, also started her career on a good note when winning a Galway maiden last August and proved she had progressed into her three-year-old season when lining up in the TRM Equine Nutrition Race at Naas in March.
There she prevailed by three lengths from the Group One-placed Portland, and like her stablemate she now holds entries for the 1000 Guineas contests at both Newmarket and the Curragh.
“Purple Lily came out of her win in Naas in great form, I’m very happy with her,” Twomey said.
“She’s trained very well since, we’re looking forward to the year ahead and we’ll decide soon which of the Guineas she’ll go for – hopefully it’ll be either the English or the Irish Guineas.
“We’re lucky to have some nice horses in and we’re just hoping they can have a good year.”
