Big Gossey sprang a surprise as he landed the 1xBet.ie Supports Irish Racing Gladness Stakes at the Curragh for the second time, with Albert Einstein never threatening and finishing well beaten.
Aidan O'Brien’s 11-10 favourite Albert Einstein had been ante-post favourite for the 2000 Guineas but having been ferociously keen early on, he found little in the closing stages.
Despite being recognised a a course specialist, Big Gossey was sent off a 25-1 chance to back up last year’s win but the grey came home clear one and a half lengths in front of East Hampton.
Albert Einstein trailed home four and a half lengths adrift in sixth.
"I wasn’t really expecting that," said winning trainer Charles O’Brien.
"Coming here last year I thought he had a good chance but today I thought there were a few in there that probably had a bit more class than him but you can’t beat honesty.
"The longer I hang around this game, attitude is more important than an awful lot of things.
"If you look at his program for the last seven or eight years, it’s going to be pretty much the same."
What a horse! The nine-year-old Big Gossey records a ninth win at The Curragh & records successive wins in the Listed https://t.co/6Fig0qBC8J Supports Irish Racing Gladness Stakes @1xbet_ireland 👇🏻 pic.twitter.com/omVdTrsNW7
— The Curragh Racecourse (@curraghrace) March 28, 2026
Aidan O'Brien said the vanquished favourite would now revert to sprinting.
"I think he’s a sprinter and that was a little bit of the reason he was here. It was a very tough call to run him in that ground against older, harder, horses.
"Obviously we just have to do the right thing by the horse.
"He’s always found it very hard to go slow. Some horses find it very hard to go quick but he finds it very hard to go slow. Usually that kind of horse needs a very strong tempo early.
"The lads will decide but my initial thought is that he’ll be coming back and he’ll go sprinting.
"It’s a very difficult thing to run against those horses in that bad ground. If you have an older horse, strong horse, they can maul a three-year-old.
"He was travelling very strong and in that ground you’d have preferred that he would be travelling a gear or two lower.
"He’s naturally just not able to do that. His tempo is so quick, he is a very high tempo horse. It was in the back of my mind that this is a big sprinter.
"His level of fitness is the same as the horses that are running so they’ll all come on."
When asked if he could work back from the Commonwealth Cup he added: "It’s very possible, obviously we’ll go and talk to the lads and see what they want to do but there is a very good chance that that’s the route he’s going to go.
"I know what this horse is able to do. He’s so big and when Ryan sat up on him he could not believe the width of him.
"He’s 560kg going down into that ground, he’s a lot bigger than the horses he was racing against who are probably 460kg or 470kg. This guy is a monster and being that big in heavy ground is very difficult for him."
