Shibuni's Falcon wins in slop

The European pattern race season ended on a soggy note at the Capannelle on Sunday as Shibuni's Falcon slogged his way to a 12-1 victory in the Premio Roma over a rain-soaked course.

The conditions at the Roman racetrack were so bad that the remainder of the card had to be abandoned following the 2 1/2-length victory of Shibuni's Falcon, a 4-year-old son of Polar Falcon.

The Roma was run in a deluge, but trainer Maurizio Guarnieri had the British-bred Shibuni's Falcon tuned up perfectly for the 1 1/4-mile Group 1 contest. He led throughout in heavy going to defeat German invader Monos, with the Michael Stoute-trained Little Rock four lengths farther back in third.

The victory of Shibuni's Falcon gave Italian trainers a rare home sweep of all three group races over their British, French, and German rivals. Earlier, the 10-1 Giovane Imperatore, a British-bred son of Halling trained by Luigi Brogi, took the one-mile Group 2 Premio Ribot, while Sergio Benedetti engineered the 19-1 tally of the Irish-bred Danehill 8-year-old Nil in the six-furlong Group 3 Premio Umbria.