Italian Derby: Odds stacked in trainer Botti's favor
Sunday’s Group 2 Italian Derby at Capannelle Racecourse may go to top Italian trainer Stefano Botti by default. He trains five of the 12 runners in the race.
Steve AndersenMay 17, 2013
Sunday’s Group 2 Italian Derby at Capannelle Racecourse may go to top Italian trainer Stefano Botti by default. He trains five of the 12 runners in the race.
Libertarian, one of the two longest shots in the field, upset the Group 2 Dante Stakes on Thursday at York.
Red Cadeaux, second to Animal Kingdom in the Dubai World Cup in March, will race in his fourth different country in as many starts in Sunday’s $2.4 million Singapore Airlines International Cup at Kranji Racecourse in Singapore.
Liber Nauticus will have a perfect record when she starts in the English Oaks at Epsom Downs on May 31. On Wednesday, Liber Nauticus made her first start of 2013 and her stakes debut in the $112,870 Musidora Stakes for 3-year-old fillies at York Racecourse, winning by 1 1/2 lengths in the Group 3 race over about 1 5/16 miles.
Indian Chief can join trainer Aidan O’Brien’s crew of Epsom Derby hopefuls with a strong showing Thursday at York in the Group 2 Dante Stakes, one of England’s major Derby preps.
Liber Nauticus, a maiden race winner in her only start, will make her stakes debut in Wednesday’s $112,870 Musidora Stakes for 3-year-old fillies at York Racecourse in England.
Verxina, second in the Japanese Oaks and three other Grade 1 races in 2012, got her first Grade 1 win in Sunday’s $1,908,722 Victoria Mile for fillies and mares on turf at Tokyo Racecourse, holding off a late threat from defending champion Whale Capture.
The Breeders’ Cup turf races for 2-year-olds would be considered second-class Group 1 fare by Europhile racing fans, but the 2012 BC Juvenile Fillies is churning out European classic winners this spring. Last weekend, Sky Lantern, eighth in the Juvenile Fillies Turf, won the English 1000 Guineas, and on Sunday at Longchamp, it was Flotilla, the Juvenile Fillies Turf heroine, who captured the French version of that race, the Group 1 Poule d’Essai des Pouliches.
Secret Gesture won her first start of the year in Saturday’s Betfred Oaks Trial Stakes at Lingfield Racecourse in England to join the list of leading contenders for the English Oaks at Epsom Racecourse on May 31.
Gary Stevens and Rosie Napravnik will represent the United States in the Shergar Cup jockey’s competition at Ascot, England, on Aug. 10, it was announced on Saturday.