Stormy Antarctic blew past the heavily favored Foundation and won the Group 3 Craven Stakes on Thursday at Newmarket, racing through a thunderstorm and into the English 2000 Guineas next month.
Foundation, who is as low as 12-1 in antepost betting for the English 2000 Guineas next month and a general second choice for the Epsom Derby in June, makes his first start at age 3 Thursday at Newmarket in the Group 3 Craven Stakes.
Jeweler won the first stakes of her career in Sunday’s $1,840,800 Japanese 1000 Guineas at Hanshin Racecourse, the first leg of the Triple Crown for 3-year-old fillies in that country.
Rule the World, a 9-year-old gelding who began his career in Irish point-to-point amateur races, won the $1.4 million Grand National steeplechase at Aintree Racecourse near Liverpool, England, on Saturday.
Major Emblem, the Japanese champion 2-year-old filly of 2015, tries to win the second Grade 1 race of her career in Sunday’s $1,840,800 Japanese 1000 Guineas at Hanshin Racecourse.
Many Clouds tries to become the first horse to win consecutive runnings of the Grand National in more than 40 years when the $1.4 million steeplechase marathon is held at Aintree Racecourse near Liverpool, England, on Saturday.
Zhukova, a minor stakes winner at Galway, Ireland, last summer, scored an upset win in Sunday’s $53,500 Alleged Stakes at The Curragh in Ireland, spoiling the 2016 debut of Found, the winner of the $3 million Breeders’ Cup Turf at Keeneland last October.
Found, unraced since winning the $3 million Breeders’ Cup Turf at Keeneland last October, is expected to be an odds-on favorite for her 4-year-old debut in Sunday’s $53,500 Alleged Stakes at The Curragh in Ireland.
Mike de Kock, who trains in South Africa, Dubai, and England, is sending two of his best dirt horses, the 4-year-old Mubtaahij and Vale Dori, a 4-year-old filly on Northern Hemisphere time, to U.S. trainers for summer campaigns. Mubtaahij goes to Kiaran McLaughlin and Vale Dori to Bob Baffert.
California Chrome had a quiet Sunday at Meydan Racecourse a day after his dramatic win in the $10 million Dubai World Cup. Alan Sherman, assistant trainer to his father, trainer Art Sherman, said in an email that California Chrome “came out of his race great.”
