Gordon Lord Byron takes fourth crack at Betfred Sprint Cup

Maybe Gordon Lord Byron at age 7 isn’t quite the horse he was a year ago, but maybe he still is, and going six furlongs down the straight course at Haydock Park Racecourse always has agreed with Gordon Lord Byron.

Saturday, he makes his fourth appearance in the big sprint race at Haydock, the Group 1 Betfred Sprint Cup, and if he runs like he did the first three times, Gordon Lord Byron will be a factor. He won the race in 2013, finished second in 2012, and was second again last year, beating 15 rivals but coming up short behind G Force, who also is among the 17 entrants in this year’s edition.

Trained in Ireland by Tom Hogan, Gordon Lord Byron has yet to find his best form this summer, and perhaps he has been slow to fully recover from two starts this past winter in Hong Kong, the second of them against the mighty Able Friend. Gordon Lord Byron most recently finished third in the Group 3 Renaissance Stakes at The Curragh, the same race in which he was second last summer before his solid run in the Betfred Sprint. The going Saturday is forecast to be good: Gordon Lord Byron doesn’t mind it substantially softer than that, but handles almost any type of ground.

G Force has turned in four total duds since he beat Gordon Lord Byron one year ago and is a longshot Saturday, while the tepid antepost favorite is Adaay, a 3-year-old who gets only a two-pound weight break from elders this late in the season. Adaay was a course and distance winner in May, taking the Group 2 Sandy Lane Stakes against his own age set. Trained by William Haggas for Sheikh Hamdan, Adaay is a one-run closer who likes fast ground.

Also in the race is the venerable 8-year-old Sole Power, who was fourth in this race last year, but who has always been a better horse at five furlongs than six.

Breeders’ Cup Challenge race in Germany

You’re forgiven if you failed to notice that Saturday’s T. Von Zastrow Stutenpreis, a Group 2 race Saturday at Baden-Baden in Germany, was added to the 2015 list of Breeders’ Cup Challenge Win and You’re In races. There are nine German-based fillies and mares entered to race 1 1/2 miles, and the race winner will receive an automatic berth in the BC Filly and Mare Turf, plus $40,000 in travel expenses to get to the race at Keeneland this fall. None of the entrants, however, look anything close to a class good enough to factor at the Breeders’ Cup level.

Trainer Clive Brittain to retire

The English trainer Clive Brittain announced this week he will retire at the end of the 2015 flat-racing season.

Brittain, who is 81, became the first English trainer with a Breeders’ Cup winner when Pebbles won the BC Turf in 1985. She was his only U.S. winner from 22 runners, but Brittain found plenty of success at home, winning six classic races during a long career.