Andre Fabre and Aidan O’Brien have each won two of the last five runnings of Saint-Cloud’s $348,000, Group 1 Criterium International. Sunday’s renewal could be the icebreaker as they will saddle the two favorites for the one-mile juvenile test, Fabre with Godolphin’s undefeated French Navy, O’Brien with Roderic O’Connor, the game runner-up to Frankel in the Dewhurst Stakes.
Ave, winner of the Flower Bowl Invitational, is headed to Japan for the Queen Elizabeth II Commemorative Cup at Kyoto on Nov. 14, when she will run into the winner of this year’s English and Irish Oaks, Snow Fairy.
Buena Vista, the ultra-consistent 4-year-old daughter of Special Week who was an unlucky second to Dar Re Mi in the Dubai Sheema Classic in March, heads a competitive field of 18 at Tokyo on Sunday in the $3.1 million, 1 1/4-mile Autumn Tenno Sho, or Emperor’s Cup, one of Japan’s most coveted races.
Paddy Mullins, the trainer of the legendary Dawn Run, widely regarded as the greatest jumping mare in history, died at the age of 91 on Thursday in Ireland.
The Emirates Racing Authority, the ruling body of racing in Dubai and the United Arab Emirates, announced Wednesday that it has upgraded 10 of its races for the 2011 winter season. All but one of the races are run at Meydan Racecourse.
Casamento, the 2-1 favorite, was an impressive winner of the Racing Post Trophy at Doncaster on Saturday. Ridden by Frankie Dettori, he powered to a three-quarter-length victory over the Aidan O'Brien-trained Seville.
It looks as though the Irish angle will be crucial in Saturday’s Racing Post Trophy at Doncaster, the final Group 1 event of the British season. The mile event for 2-year-old colts and fillies has attracted 10 runners, with the Irish-trained pair of Casamento and Dunboyne Express looking the strongest.
Triple Group 1 winner Rip Van Winkle has been retired to Coolmore Stud after what trainer Aiden O'Brien told Racing Post is "a very slight setback." O'Brien apparently did not detail the colt's issue but said that "it would have meant forcing him to get him to Churchill Downs" for the Breeders' Cup, where Rip Van Winkle was nominated for both the Breeders' Cup Mile and the Classic. A 4-year-old by Galileo, he will now join his sire at Coolmore.
A final decision on the Breeders’ Cup Turf status of Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe winner Workforce will not be made until Saturday at the earliest after trainer Michael Stoute has seen the 3-year-old son of King’s Best work at Newmarket.
The Dubai Racing Club announced on Tuesday that the distance of the Al Quoz Sprint, a Group 2 turf race run on Dubai World Cup Night, has been shortened from six furlongs to five furlongs.
