Automatic berths for two Breeders’ Cup races at Keeneland in October will be awarded to the winners of seven-figure stakes at Royal Randwick Racecourse in Australia on Saturday.
The races California Chrome may attempt at the Royal Ascot meeting in June are annually among the toughest flat races of the year in England.
Aerovelocity won his second major stakes in the last five months in Sunday’s $1,658,831 Takamatsunomiya Kinen at about six furlongs at Chukyo, Japan.
California Chrome will ship from Dubai to England this week in a bold bid to carry his Kentucky Derby-winning and Horse of the Year form to the European turf.
Prince Bishop ran in the 2011 World Cup, the edition won by Victoire Pisa, and finished 10th. He ran in the 2012 World Cup, with Monterosso leading a local sweep in the synthetic-surface race, and finished seventh. The next year on World Cup Night, he ran up the track in the Sheema Classic, and last year, in his third crack at the World Cup, Prince Bishop finished ninth, beaten more than 11 lengths.
Treve is not the only elite filly in France. Dolniya, getting a dream trip under Christophe Soumillon, who scored a seven-figure-stakes double Saturday night, led a one-two French finish in the Group 1, $6 million Dubai Sheema Classic, winning by 2 1/4 lengths over Flintshire in a powerful performance.
Freddie Head called his shot. Solow, the 5-year-old gelding Head trains for owners and breeders Alain and Gerard Wertheimer, never had run in a Group 1 race before Saturday night. Yet this week, as Solow readied for the Group 1, $6 million Dubai Turf, Head called him one of the best horses he ever had trained, and even called him great.
Bob Baffert won his first Dubai Golden Shaheen when Secret Circle broke a six-race losing streak dating to November 2013, holding off longshot Super Jockey to win the Group 1, $2 million dirt sprint by a head.
Mubtaahij cruised to an eight-length victory in the $2 million UAE Derby and ran his way into a start in the Kentucky Derby.
Aerovelocity and Straight Girl, the first- and third-place finishers of the Group 1 Hong Kong Sprint at Sha Tin last December, are the leading contenders in Sunday’s $1,658,831 Takamatsunomiya Kinen at about six furlongs at Chukyo Racecourse in Japan.
