France: Streaking Baaeed adds Prix du Moulin to win list
Baaeed passed his Group 1 test Sunday at France's Longchamp Racecourse, winning the Prix du Moulin to run his record to five wins from five starts.
Baaeed wasn’t as flashy Sunday as he’d been in his previous races, but faced far stronger competition and had shipped out of England for the first time.
Three-year-old filly Novemba was reluctant to load, charged the gate just as it sprang, got away in a tangle, and buzzed from last to first in the first half-furlong to take a big lead. The filly’s display of speed might have set Baaeed off a bit as the 3-year-old colt, who had raced from far behind the leader in his first four races, tracked from third in the one-mile Moulin.
Racing about three paths wide around the turn without cover, Baaeed came into contention in upper stretch under Jim Crowley, reeling in the pacesetter and comfortably holding clear Group 1 winners Order of Australia and Victor Ludorum, the latter edging the former for second. Baaeed won by 1 1/4 lengths while getting a four-pound weight break from the two behind him as a 3-year-old facing older rivals. Three-year-old filly Snow Lantern failed to show her best checking in a non-contending fourth.
Baaeed, the odds-on favorite despite never having contested a higher-class race than a Group 3, clocked a moderate 1:39.19 racing over good-to-soft ground in a truly run race, and while he did not appear to be the second coming of Frankel, he did stamp himself as one of Europe’s top milers. Trained by William Haggas for Shadwell, Baaeed is by Sea the Stars out of Aghareed, by Kingmambo. He could face top miler Palace Pier next month in the QE II Stakes on QIPCO Champions Day at Ascot and also is priced up by English bookmakers for the Breeders’ Cup Mile, though connections have made no public mention of that race.
Emaraaty Ana could go for BC Turf Sprint
Emaraaty Ana was a game winner over the talented Starman on Saturday at Haydock Park in the Group 1 Sprint Cup Stakes and could be headed to Del Mar for the Breeders’ Cup Turf Sprint.
Glass Slippers, an overseas shipper, won the 2020 BC Turf Sprint at Keeneland.
Emaraaty Ana, ridden by Andrea Atzeni, beat even-money Starman by a head racing six furlongs over good-to-firm ground. Emaraaty Ana, a 5-year-old by Shamardal, is “tailor-made for the Breeders’ Cup this year,” trainer Kevin Ryan told overseas racing press.
*** Torquator Tasso may have punched his ticket to the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe by winning the Group 1 Grosser Preis von Baden on Sunday in Germany. Four-year-old Torquator Tasso gave seven pounds to 2021 German Derby winner Sisfahan in the 1 1/2-mile contest and beat him by one length. The colt, by Adlerflug, has been one of the better horses in Germany the last two years and in the 2020 German Derby was second to the high-class performer In Swoop.