The best race in Ireland so far this year takes place Sunday at Leopardstown with Nathaniel, Snow Fairy, and St Nicholas Abbey the main attractions among six horses entered in the Group 1 Irish Champion Stakes.
Danedream won Germany’s most important race for older horses, the Group 1 Grosser Preis von Baden, for the second straight year on Sunday at Baden-Baden.
After turning over the possibility of sending Frankel to the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe, the connections of the world’s best horse have decided to stick to their original plan and run Frankel in the Champion Stakes on Oct. 20 at Ascot.
First Cornerstone, recently acquired by the Kentucky-based Team Valor Partnership, won Sunday’s Group 2 Futurity Stakes for 2-year-olds at the Curragh in Ireland in his group stakes debut.
Premio Loco, an 8-year-old gelding and 20-1 shot, scored a surprise win in Saturday’s Group 2 Celebration Mile at Goodwood Racecourse in England.
Ortensia, the 7-year-old Australian mare, won the Group 1 Nunthorpe Stakes for sprinters at York on Friday, her second consecutive group stakes win in England.
Frankel, who stretched his unbeaten streak to 13 with a convincing win in the Group 1 Juddmonte International Stakes at York on Wednesday, has been given an official rating of 140 for the second time in his career.
Shareta, runner-up in the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe last October, won for the first time this year in Thursday’s Group 1 Yorkshire Oaks at York, England.
Frankel extended his unbeaten streak to 13 races, and won for the first time over about 1 5/16 miles, with an easy win in Wednesday’s Group 1 Juddmonte International Stakes at York Racecourse in England.
For all he has accomplished in his unbeaten 12-race career, Frankel has only run two distances – seven furlongs and a mile. That will change Wednesday, when the 4-year-old Frankel starts over 1 1/4 miles for the first time in the Group 1 Juddmonte International Stakes at York, England.
