Faugheen led a parade of winners for Irish trainer Willie Mullins and jockey Ruby Walsh at Cheltenham Racecourse on Tuesday, stretching his unbeaten record to nine races with a frontrunning win in the $600,000 Champion Hurdle.
Experience may be required to win Wednesday’s $532,000 Queen Mother Champion Chase at two miles over fences at Cheltenham Racecourse.
The numbers are phenomenal. In the four-day National Hunt festival for steeplechasers and hurdlers at Cheltenham Racecourse in the west of England from Tuesday through Friday, Irish trainer Willie Mullins may have as many as 50 runners in 27 races.
Super Saturday was super at least for Godolphin and trainer Saeed bin Suroor, who swept the last three races on the program, including a win in the Group 1 Al Maktoum Challenge Round 3 with African Story, their 2014 Dubai World Cup winner.
Friday, Toast of New York, the runner-up in the Breeders’ Cup Classic at Santa Anita last November, has been declared from the Dubai World Cup, trainer Jamie Osborne said.
The Group 1, $400,000 Al Maktoum Challenge Round 3 highlights the so-called Super Saturday card on Saturday evening at Meydan Racecourse in Dubai. And for whoever wins, victory is likely to be the highlight of their Dubai campaign in 2015.
Godolphin’s two heavy favorites, Local Time in the UAE Oaks and Safety Check in the Zabeel Mile, both scored comfortable wins on the Thursday night card at Meydan Racecourse in Dubai.
A pair of group stakes with likely heavy favorites highlight Thursday’s seven-race card at Meydan in Dubai. Local Time is 2 for 2 in her brief dirt career and will be an odds-on favorite to win her third race of the winter in the Group 3, $250,000 UAE Oaks, while Safety Check appears formidable in the Group 2, $250,000 Zabeel Mile.
Horses based in the U.S. that are being pointed to races in Britain will have to arrive in the country 10 days prior to the race and will be subjected to a new zero-tolerance policy on the use of anabolic steroids under new rules announced by the British Horseracing Authority on Tuesday.
Hunter’s Light is likely to make his third appearance on the Dubai World Cup program next month after winning his second consecutive race in Thursday’s $200,000 Dubai Millennium Stakes at Meydan Racecourse in the United Arab Emirates.
