The Champions Day card at Newmarket on Saturday will be highlighted not by the prestigious Champion Stakes, but by Britain’s definitive juvenile contest, the $504,000 Dewhurst Stakes, a seven-furlong Group 1 featuring a clash between Frankel and Dream Ahead.
Goldikova will have company on her trip to Churchill Downs in search of a third Breeders’ Cup Mile title. On Wednesday her owners, the Wertheimer brothers, announced that they intend to run their Grand Prix de Saint-Cloud winner, Plumania, in either the Breeders’ Cup Turf or the Filly and Mare Turf.
The stars will be come out at Newmarket on Saturday afternoon when the headquarters of British racing will conduct its annual Champions’ Day program. Topping the bill are a pair of red-hot Group 1’s, the Champion Stakes at 1 1/4 miles for 3-year-olds and up, and the seven-furlong Dewhurst Stakes, Britain’s definitive 2-year-old contest.
Japan’s Breeders’ Cup Classic hopeful, Espoir City, had his six-race winning streak ended on Monday when he finished second to the record-setting Oro Meister in the Nambu Hai Mile Championship at Morioka.
Behkabad will aim for the Breeders’ Cup Turf on Nov. 6 at Churchill Downs, where he could have a chance to avenge his loss to Workforce in the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe.
Outofthecoulds lived up to his name by coming from well off the pace to win the $100,000 Jack Diamond Futurity for 2-year-old colts and geldings on the final day of the Hastings meet Monday.
Workforce, winner of the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe, was mentioned as a possibility for the Breeders’ Cup Turf on Monday, one day after his game head victory over Nakayama Festa at Longchamp.
The Workforce that showed up Sunday at Longchamp was not the King George VI and Queen Elizabeth Stakes flop, but it was the record-setting winner of the Epsom Derby. In a remarkable feat of training, Michael Stoute nurtured a superb performance out of the enigmatic Workforce to win the $5.33 million Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe.
Goldikova served notice that she will be in top form for her attempt at an unprecedented third consecutive Breeders’ Cup Mile title when she won the $333,000 Prix de la Foret at Longchamp on Sunday, defeating Paco Boy by a rather comfortable half-length in one of six Group 1 races on the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe undercard.
The $173,000, one-mile Prix Daniel Wildenstein has occasionally thrown up a Breeders’ Cup Mile runner. Domedriver vaulted from victory in the race in 2002 to win the Mile, but there will be no Mile candidate emerging from Saturday’s renewal at Longchamp, where Royal Bench took advantage of the very soft ground to win for the first time at the Group 2 level.
