Cracksman to Coronation Cup, Mendelssohn could run at Saratoga

With 2017 Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe winner Enable sidelined until at least August because of a knee injury, her stablemate, Cracksman, will start in the Group 1 Coronation Cup on June 1 at Epsom.

Enable had been pointed toward the Coronation Cup, which is part of the Derby meeting, but was found to have an injured knee about a week ago and won’t be able to make her 4-year-old debut until later this summer. In her absence, trainer John Gosden revealed early this week that Cracksman, a sharp winner of the Group 1 Prix Ganay in his 4-year-old debut, would take the filly’s spot in the Coronation Cup. Cracksman, Europe’s highest-rated horse according to the Longines World’s Best Racehorse Rankings, figures to be heavily favored in the 1 1/2-mile Coronation Cup.

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Mendelssohn scheduled for US return later this summer

It was open-house morning Monday at Ballydoyle in Ireland as trainer Aidan O’Brien invited a group of European media members into his training yard. Among the horses on display was Mendelssohn, who reportedly has come out of his last-place finish in the Kentucky Derby no worse for wear.

O’Brien already was on record saying Mendelssohn would have the Breeders’ Cup Classic as a target, and on Monday he said the plan was to ship Mendelssohn to the U.S. for a dirt race a couple months in advance of the Breeders’ Cup, which will be held at Churchill Downs this year. O’Brien specifically mentioned the Saratoga meeting as a possible target for Mendelssohn, who could take on 3-year-olds there in the Travers Stakes. European 3-year-olds begin facing older rivals at home in major stakes races as early as June, and it might not be out of the question that O’Brien would aim for either the Whitney or the Woodward at the Saratoga meeting.