Former Godolphin trainer Mahmood Al Zarooni has withdrawn an appeal of an eight-year suspension for administering steroids to runners in his stable in England earlier this year, the British Horseracing Authority announced Wednesday.
Everyone seemed to want a part of Secret Gesture earlier this week, in advance of Friday’s $600,000 English Oaks at Epsom Downs.
Veteran jockey Yutaka Take won the $4,088,050 Japanese Derby at Tokyo Racecourse for a record fifth time Sunday aboard Kizuna, the 9-5 favorite in the race over about 1 1/2 miles on turf.
Maxios maintained his strong form while running Planteur into a second-place finish for the second straight year in the Group 1 Prix d’Ispahan on Sunday at Longchamp in France.
There are two ways of looking at Camelot’s loss in the Tattersalls Gold Cup to Al Kazeem, a 5-year-old horse making his Group 1 debut Sunday at The Curragh in Ireland.
Magician validated his dominant victory in the Dee Stakes on May 8 at Chester in England with a similarly convincing win Saturday at The Curragh in the Group 1 Irish 2000 Guineas.
Epaulette, who won the Group 1 Golden Rose Stakes last September and was second to the famous sprinter Black Caviar last month, won his first major race of 2013 in Saturday’s $630,500 Doomben 10,000 at Doomben Racecourse in Australia.
Grace Lady, a 4-year-old filly by Muhtathir, won the most prestigious race of her career with a 10-1 upset in Friday’s Group 2 Prix Corrida for fillies and mares at Saint-Cloud, France.
Camelot’s 4-year-old debut May 6 in the Group 3 Mooresbridge Stakes didn’t establish him as an elite older horse, and even another victory on Sunday at The Curragh in the Tattersalls Gold Cup might not show where Camelot stands in the grand scheme of European middle-distance racing.
Planteur heads a field of eight older runners in the Prix d’Ispahan, one of two Group 1 races along with the Prix Saint-Alary on the Sunday card at Longchamp in Paris. Trained by Marco Botti, Planteur has only one win in his last nine starts, but has regularly faced some of the stiffest competition in the world, and his connections were well pleased with his third-place finish behind Animal Kingdom on March 30 in the $10 million Dubai World Cup.
