The first Group 1 win of Olympic Glory’s career proved a memorable won, as the 3-year-old burst between horses and stormed home to a 3 1/4-length victory Saturday at soggy Ascot in the $1,614,700 Queen Elizabeth II Stakes.
Saturday, Cirrus des Aigles is back in the $2,093,000 Champion Stakes and will be a heavy favorite to win the race over 1 1/4 miles on turf.
The idea motivating the creation of British Champions Day at Ascot was to bring together the best horses in Europe for one last late-season day of championship-level racing, and in Saturday’s Queen Elizabeth II Stakes, that idea has largely come to fruition.
Hawkspur, a 7-1 shot to win the Melbourne Cup next month, will be favored to win Saturday’s $2,387,250 Caulfield Cup at 1 1/2 miles on turf at Caulfield Racecourse in Australia.
The Group 1 Dewhurst Stakes headlines a big day of racing on Saturday at Newmarket in England. The $559,055 Dewhurst is the richest of four group races for 2-year-olds on a program that also includes the $400,000 Cambridgeshire Handicap.
Purses on the wintertime all-weather circuit in England will be increased by $3.1 million this winter, culminating in a day of stakes for six divisions on Polytrack at Lingfield Park near London in April.
As flashy as Treve looked winning the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe on Sunday, Moonlight Cloud might have been her equal winning the Group 1 Prix de la Foret 1 1/2 hours later.
Treve blew away an elite field and now has a chance to go down as one of the best fillies in recent history after winning the Group 1, $6,254,439 Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe on Sunday at Longchamp by five lengths.
Cirrus des Aigles won the Group 2 Prix Dollar for the third consecutive year at Longchamp Racecourse in Paris on Saturday, becoming the first horse to achieve the milestone.
If Orfevre were a professional athlete of the human rather than equine variety, a full year of dark brooding would be ending Sunday, when he gets another crack at the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe at Longchamp.
