The 2020 Group One 1000 Guineas, like any horse race, wasn’t a beauty contest. However, if it had been, the result would have been the same. The filly Love, going to post, was the most gorgeous in the field, a bright chestnut with a white stripe down her face, wearing only a minimal bridle and bit, allowing one to see that elegant head: the most appropriately named race filly of all time. Bred and raced by Coolmore, Love easily bested favored Quadrilateral, then gave cameras a demure glance as if she knows how lovely she truly is.

Feminine, elegant and beautiful as she is, her pedigree represents a powerhouse cast. Her dams’ side couldn’t be better designed to work with the great Galileo, her sire. Proof of this is that she has two full sisters, both of them Group winning performers, Flattering and Peach Tree. Love is out of the Pivotal mare Pikaboo, one of the most successful crosses for Galileo, with an 8.44 AEI (Galileo’s AEI with all mares is a whopping 3.22). This cross is represented by numerous Group One winners, among them Magical.

The key to the success of this cross is in the twinning of Northern Dancer, through Sadler’s Wells on the sires’ side, and Nureyev on the dams’, and the twinning through these great sires of Sadler’s Wells grandmother and Nureyev’s mother, Special, the most powerful contemporary dose of the Blue Hen Roughshod II line. Pivotal also adds a dose of Cozzene through his dam, Fearless Revival, adding stamina and turf ability, and Cozzene’s wonderful female family through his dam, Ride the Trails.

Love’s second dam, Gleam of Light, represents another stupendous nick for Galileo, as she is by Danehill. Galileo has had a bit of success with Danehill mares: the magnificent Frankel is but one example in a list of 11 Group One winners from Galileo on Danehill mares. This cross boasts 54% winners from foals, and 17% black type winners, for an AEI of 4.76. It should be noted that Danehill’s dam, Razyana, brings a female dose of Almahmoud to the Northern Dancer party, and also Buckpasser, echoing the Buckpasser in Galileo’s Miswaki dam, Urban Sea.

Coolmore, of all breeders, knows how to get a good horse utilizing “the best sire on the planet,” Galileo. We must look forward to Love’s future races, if only to see her looking glorious in the walk-up to post. That minimal bridle must attest to the fact that she is a very well-behaved girl, too—beauty and brains. Having this mare in a paddock on your farm would make you happy to wake up every day.

-- Roberta Smoodin