After a Group 3 win in July and a victory in a Group 2 in August, the 3-year-old filly Friendly Soul won her third consecutive start, and first Group 1, in Sunday’s Prix de l’Opera for fillies and mares at Longchamp Racecourse in Paris.
:quality(75))
It is not like the England-based trainer Ralph Beckett has a horse for the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe every year. Beckett runs a fine, successful stable regularly populated with high-level performers, but we’re not talking about Ballydoyle here. And so it must have felt to Beckett like he’d missed a golden chance to win his first Arc when Westover ran into the brilliant Ace Impact finishing second a year ago.
The fast-improving 3-year-old Tamfana won her first Group 1 race in Saturday’s $360,700 Sun Chariot Stakes for fillies and mares at a mile at Newmarket Racecourse in Britain, finishing two lengths in front of Inspiral, the winner of the Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Turf at Santa Anita last November.
:quality(75))
Fallen Angel, coming off a game second in the Group 1 Matron Stakes at Leopardstown, may be favored in Sunday's Group 1 Prix de l'Opera for fillies and mares at 1 1/8 miles at Longchamp Racecourse in Paris. The winner of the $441,400 Prix de l'Opera receives a fees-paid berth to the Breeders' Cup Filly and Mare Turf at Del Mar on Nov. 2.
:quality(75))
Sunday's Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe at Longchamp lacks not only star power but names that most casual North American observers of European flat racing would recognize. Friday morning, a pair of France-based 3-year-olds sat atop the betting markets set by English bookmakers, and the fact those two, Look de Vega and Sosie, were priced at 5-1 demonstrates how wide open Sunday's 1 1/2-mile contest appears.
:quality(75))
Karis Teetan hopes Adefill’s natural affinity with Sha Tin’s All Weather Track will prove decisive when Ricky Yiu’s gelding resumes in the HK$3.12 million Class 2 Nam Long Shan Handicap (1650m, dirt) on Sunday (6 October).
:quality(75))
Hong Kong Selections for Sunday, October 6, 2024, at Sha Tin.
:quality(75))
Things have not gone right this year for Inspiral, the winner of the Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Turf at Santa Anita last November. Inspiral is winless in three starts, a trend that may be reversed in Saturday’s Group 1 Sun Chariot Stakes at a mile at Newmarket Racecourse in Britain.
Four Group 1 races, as well as key prep races for the rich Everest Stakes and Melbourne Cup, highlight racing at Flemington Racecourse in Melbourne and Royal Randwick in Sydney, Australia on Friday evening.
:quality(75))
Luke Middlebrook's Hong Kong Selections and Analysis for Sunday, October 6, 2024, at Sha Tin.
