The team of Crystal Waters and jockey Winona Costin are tough to ignore in a seven-furlong handicap for fillies and mares on the infield Kensington track at Royal Randwick Racecourse in Sydney, Australia, on Wednesday.
Crystal Waters has won her last two starts, the most recent of which was a seven-furlong handicap at Kembla Grange Racecourse on Jan. 22. Costin was aboard for that victory as well as a win by Crystal Waters in a seven-furlong handicap at Nowra Racecourse in October.
Race conditions may favor Fenech in a handicap at 6 3/4 furlongs at Wyong Racecourse in Australia on Tuesday.
The turf course is expected to be heavy, which should suit the 5-year-old Fenech. A winner of 4 of 12 starts, Fenech is winless in five starts since a win in a handicap at 6 1/2 furlongs at Taree Racecourse on soft turf last June.
La Pluie is an Australian 3-year-old filly with a promising future.
On Jan. 22, in her third race following a six-month layoff, La Pluie beat maidens in her fifth career start at 7 1/2 furlongs at Mornington Racecourse not far from Melbourne. The win has led to an appearance in a handicap at 1 1/16 miles at Stony Creek Racecourse on Monday, her debut against winners.
There were some good performances Friday on the Dubai World Cup Carnival card at Meydan, but nothing could rival the sight of Lord Glitters storming down the crown of the grass course, going last to first to win the Group 2, $180,000 Singspiel Stakes.
Lord Glitters, you see, is a 9-year-old. Few racehorses stick around this long, fewer still perform competitively in races of any consequence, and a 9-year-old Group 2 winner is all but unheard of over the flat.
Mishriff, who won the 2021 Saudi Cup, heads a compelling international cast of likely runners for the $20 million Saudi Cup on Feb. 26 at King Abdualaziz Racecourse in Saudi Arabia.
Saudi racing authorities on Friday released a list of horses they expect to start in 16 races held Feb. 25-26, a two-day meeting highlighted by the Saudi Cup, which for the first time is a Group 1 this season. The Saudi Cup is contested around one turn at 1,800 meters, about 1 1/8 miles, on dirt.
None of the 12 runners in Sunday’s Grade 3 Hobart Cup at Hobart Racecourse in Australia have been in sharp in the last few months as the outsider White Hawk.
On the turf course at Hobart and the synthetic track at nearby Devenport, White Hawk has won three of his last four starts, including an 11-1 upset in the Tasmanian Summer Cup at 1 3/8 miles on turf at Hobart on Jan. 22.
Paul Lally:
R1: 3-2-1-8
R2: 6-4-9-2
R3: 2-4-11-12
R4: 1-2-5-9
R5: 3-2-7-1
R6: 8-4-2-10
R7: 10-8-4-7
R8: 1-9-8-2
R9: 12-1-8-7
R10: 3-9-12-1
Best Bet R8 N1 Sight Spirit
Longshot R10 N3 Circuit Three
Play Race10 QQP 3-9-12
Tom Wood:
R1: 3-5-2-7
R2: 6-10-3-4
R3: 7-2-10-4
R4: 1-2-5-13
R5: 7-1-3-11
R6: 2-4-8-11
R7: 6-10-8-4
R8: 1-8-4-9
R9: 8-12-1-4
R10: 9-1-8-7
It took a little more than eight weeks for the Kentucky stakes winner Lighthouse to prove she belonged in Australian sprints.
Lighthouse won her first four starts in Australia beginning in early November, a span that included a win in the minor Chester Manifold Stakes at seven furlongs at Flemington Racecourse in Melbourne on Jan. 1.
Racing has gotten tougher since then, and will continue to be when Lighthouse has her career Group 1 debut in Saturday’s $540,900 C.F. Orr Stakes at seven furlongs at Caulfield Racecourse in Melbourne.
There’s nothing like Hot Rod Charlie, star of the Feb. 4 Dubai World Cup Carnival card, on the Friday racing program at Meydan in the United Arab Emirates, but the seven-race card, top to bottom, came up strong.
Race 1 is for purebred Arabians and race 2 is a conditions race of no great consequence, but the last five races all merit at least minor attention.
