Wild Illusion, the beaten favorite in the Group 1 English Oaks for 3-year-old fillies at Epsom on June 1 and the Group 2 Ribblesdale Stakes at Royal Ascot later that month, won her first start against older fillies and mares in Thursday’s Group 1 Nassau Stakes at the Glorious Goodwood meeting in southern England.
Sometimes persistence is the better part of valor, and in his 16th try, the 7-year-old Lightning Spear finally won a Group 1 race. Bursting between horses under Oisin Murphy on Wednesday at Goodwood, Lightning Spear rattled home a 1 1/2-length winner of the Sussex Stakes after finishing sixth in the 2016 Sussex and third last year. Lightning Spear, who began racing in 2013, has outlasted most of his contemporaries and on Wednesday outlasted seven rivals with a belated breakthrough at the top level.
Odds-on favorite Stradivarius wore down pace-setting Torcedor to win the Group 1 Goodwood Cup at Goodwood Racecourse in England.
Stradivarius has rapidly ascended to the position of Europe’s best staying racehorse, and no one is expecting him to sink anytime soon. Just a 4-year-old, Stradivarius is odds-on to capture his third straight win this season when he starts in the Group 1 Goodwood Cup on Tuesday.
Half the eight-horse field in the Group 1 Sussex Stakes on Wednesday at Goodwood is older horses, but if one of them wins it will cause a wholesale upset.
With You, fifth by a half-length in the French Oaks on June 17, won her debut against older fillies and mares in Sunday’s Group 1 Prix Rothschild at a mile on turf at Deauville, France.
They settled this year’s King George VI and Queen Elizabeth Stakes in house. Crystal Ocean, trained by Michael Stoute, stalked a strong pace, easily made the lead with a little more than two of the race’s 12 furlongs remaining, and opened up under William Buick on the way, it appeared, to victory. But several paths closer to stands filled with a crescendoing crowd, there came Poet’s Word, trained by Stoute, cutting away at Crystal Ocean’s lead.
Fresh from a career-defining win in the Group 2 Duke of Cambridge Stakes at Royal Ascot on June 20, Aljazzi will start favored in Sunday’s Group 1 Prix Rothschild for fillies and mares at a mile on turf at Deauville, France.
The three days of Glorious Goodwood, this Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday in England, get off to a grand start with Tuesday's featured Goodwood Cup.
Poet's Word broke through with his first major victory in the Prince of Wales's Stakes last month at Royal Ascot. On Saturday, back at Ascot for the Group 1 King George VI and Queen Elizabeth Stakes, Poet's Word will try to cement his still-tenuous position as Europe's current top 1 1/2-mile horse.
