Madame Chiang, who struggled against top-class company in the English Oaks and Prix Vermeille in France in recent starts, had no difficulty with the heavy ground at Ascot Racecourse in England on Saturday, scoring an upset win in the $880,000 QIPCO British Champions Fillies and Mares Stakes.
Second or third in his last four starts, and previously a winner only once this year, the 7-year-old Gordon Lord Byron broke through with a powerful, brave victory in the Group 2 QIPCO British Champions Sprint on Saturday at Ascot in England.
All the Grade 1 favorites fizzled on Future Champions Day at Newmarket, with Ivawood’s second-place finish in the Middle Park Stakes the top showing from any of the best-fancied 2-year-olds in action Friday.
Night of Thunder handed Kingman a neck loss in the English 2000 Guineas this past spring, and he can follow in the footsteps of his stablemate Olympic Glory by winning the Queen Elizabeth II Stakes, the last major one-mile race of the European season Saturday at Ascot.
The damage is done. Days of rain have left Ascot Racecourse with soft to heavy conditions in advance of Saturday’s QIPCO British Champions Day.
Since Richard Hannon Jr. operates the leading 2-year-old outfit in England, it should come as no surprise that his stable is well represented Friday at Newmarket on Future Champions Day, the juvenile appetizer to Saturday’s Qipco Champions Day at Ascot.
Freddy Head’s name has been associated with great milers throughout his decorated career as both jockey and trainer and the Frenchman is hoping to shine with yet another specialist at the eight-furlong distance this weekend.
This is the season, Breeders’ Cup time, when European horses and their human connections begin traveling in numbers across the Atlantic and to the U.S. Through the summer and fall, even before the Breeders’ Cup, a west-flowing pipeline, funneling European runners to lucrative stakes in North America, stays open. But that pipeline tends to flow just one direction. The number of Europeans racing in North America dwarfs that of North Americans venturing east across the Atlantic to race.
Lucia Valentina, a two-time stakes winner in Australia in the last six weeks, and Bande, a stakes winner from Japan, are two leading contenders in Saturday’s $2,634,000 Caulfield Cup at Caulfield Racecourse, a race that could provide vital clues for the Melbourne Cup next month.
David O’Meara has made a huge breakthrough at the highest level this year, and the 37-year-old trainer is aiming to add further polish with two solid contenders on this weekend’s Qipco British Champions Day at Ascot.
