A $3.1 million Deep Impact colt shone brightest Monday at the Japan Racing Horse Association’s July yearling sale in Hokkaido, Japan, where figures increased across the board.
Nathaniel made a triumphant return to the races Saturday at Sandown, holding off Farhh to capture the Group 1 Eclipse Stakes in his first start since last Oct. 15.
So You Think was to have started heavily favored Saturday in the Group 1 Eclipse Stakes at Sandown Park in England, but he was reported lame Thursday, and word of his impending absence from the Eclipse soon gave way to a report of So You Think’s retirement. So You Think will immediately go into quarantine and soon be shipped to Australia to stand the 2012 breeding season there, announced his connections, trainer Aidan O’Brien and an ownership group headed by the Coolmore operation.
The 4-year-old Izzi Top qualified for the Breeders' Cup Filly and Mare Turf by winning the Group 1 Pretty Polly Stakes on Sunday at the Curragh in Ireland.
Camelot won for the fifth time without a defeat and survived his first trip over a heavy, laboring course, with his win Saturday evening in the Irish Derby at the Curragh giving trainer Aidan O’Brien his seventh straight victory in that Group 1 race.
Led by English Oaks winner Was, trainer Aidan O’Brien has a formidable trio of 3-year-old fillies by Galileo in Sunday’s Group 1 Pretty Polly Stakes at the Curragh in Ireland.
Aidan O’Brien has trained the winner of the Irish Derby for six years in a row, and among his three entrants for this year’s edition of the race is Camelot, currently the leading 3-year-old in Europe by a vast margin. The calculus seems crystal-clear: Camelot will win Saturday evening’s Group 1 race at The Curragh.
Black Caviar’s narrow victory in the Diamond Jubilee Stakes on Saturday at Royal Ascot came despite the mare racing with muscle injuries, it was discovered Sunday. But immediate post-race speculation about imminent retirement was premature, with Black Caviar’s connections now contemplating another campaign this fall.
Major stakes on three continents on Saturday and Sunday offered automatic berths to Breeders’ Cup races at Santa Anita in November, but it was uncertain whether two of the winners would travel to the United States this fall.
Black Caviar remained undefeated winning the Group 1 Diamond Jubilee Stakes on Saturday, closing day at Royal Ascot. Of that there can be no dispute. The devil is in the details, though.
