The three winners of Group 1 sprints at Royal Ascot last month – Profitable, Quiet Reflection, and Twilight Son – meet for the first time in Saturday’s $645,450 July Cup at Newmarket Racecourse.
Kieren Fallon, a six-time champion jockey in Britain who rode sporadically in the United States in recent years, announced his retirement earlier this week, citing severe depression.
The Group 1 Falmouth Stakes for female milers at Newmarket, England, on Friday lost a leading contender when the Grade 1 winner Euro Charline was retired on Wednesday because of a tendon injury.
A 3-year-old with an 11-pound break in the weights from his elders won the Group 1 Eclipse Stakes on Saturday at Sandown Racecourse in England – just not the one widely expected to win the race. Hawkbill, supplemented into the Eclipse by Godolphin, got first run on heavily favored fellow 3-year-old The Ghurka and won the Eclipse by a half-length
Vazirabad has been the dominant stayer in France and Dubai in the last year, winning seven consecutive group stakes at distances ranging from 1 11/16 miles to two miles. Sunday, Vazirabad will start in his shortest race in more than a year in the $445,480 Grand Prix de Saint-Cloud.
Seven horses headed by the 3-year-old The Gurkha and the 4-year-old Time Test are set to take their chances Saturday at Sandown Park in the Group 1 Eclipse Stakes.
Minding won her third Group 1 race in the last two months with an easy victory in Sunday’s $279,375 Pretty Polly Stakes for fillies and mares at The Curragh in Ireland.
Minding, the winner of the Group 1 English Oaks on June 2, will be a heavy favorite to win her third Group 1 race of 2016 in Sunday’s $279,375 Pretty Polly Stakes for fillies and mares at The Curragh in Ireland.
Harzand will try to win his second derby of the year Saturday at The Curragh in the Group 1 Irish Derby.
Norm Casse was ready for a nap mid-morning Monday, his internal clock still off a tick or so after spending close to two weeks in England. But the horse with whom he travelled overseas, Tepin, has shown no such lingering malaise after a memorable win June 14 in the Group 1 Queen Anne Stakes at Royal Ascot.
