Cirrus des Aigles, at age 8, eyes another Champion victory
The French veteran Cirrus des Aigles, Europe’s all-time leading money earner, heads to Ascot with a favorite’s chance of winning the QIPCO Champion Stakes once again.
Tom PeacockOct 13, 2014
The French veteran Cirrus des Aigles, Europe’s all-time leading money earner, heads to Ascot with a favorite’s chance of winning the QIPCO Champion Stakes once again.
News reports out of Great Britain revealed that Arc winner Treve would not, as previously had been announced, be retired to life as a broodmare. Instead, her connections said Treve will race again as a 5-year-old in 2015, her goal a third straight victory in the Arc.
Three months after winning the Group 1 Falmouth Stakes at Newmarket, Integral won Saturday’s $318,718 Sun Chariot Stakes under jockey Ryan Moore. Integral led throughout the mile, finishing a length in front of Miss France. Fintry, the winner of three consecutive group stakes in England and France prior to the Sun Chariot, finished third, a neck behind Miss France and 1 1/2 lengths in front of Esoterique.
The Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe is wide-open this year, the 20-horse field a captivating mix of 3-year-olds and older horses, fillies and colts, French, English, German, and Japanese runners.
Tarfasha, the winner of the Group 2 Blandford Stakes in Ireland last month and the runner-up in the English Oaks in June, is a lukewarm favorite in a field of 11.
Fintry, the winner of three consecutive group stakes in England and France this year, will be favored to win her first Group 1 race in Saturday’s $318,718 Sun Chariot Stakes at Newmarket, England.
Tiggy Wiggy won her third straight race and her sixth from eight starts, capturing her first Group 1 in the Cheveley Park Stakes for 2-year-old fillies on Saturday at Newmarket in England.
Ol’ Man River, a hyped Aidan O’Brien-trained 2-year-old, tries stakes competition for the first time on Sunday at the Curragh in the Group 2 Beresford Stakes.
The focus Saturday at Newmarket in England is on 2-year-olds, and while the Cheveley Park is the race with the Group 1 status, the Group 2 Royal Lodge is a Breeders’ Cup Win and You’re In race offering the winner a fees-paid berth and travel expenses to the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf.
German star Sea the Moon, the antepost betting favorite for the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe before a surprising defeat Sept. 7 in the Grosser Preis von Baden, has been retired because of an injury.