The Irish-bred filly Love Takes Time has the pedigree to be a star, and could develop into such a runner in Australia in the near future.

Love Takes Time, who starts in a handicap at 7 1/2 furlongs at Mornington Racecourse near Melbourne on Thursday, is by the world-renowned stallion Galileo and is a half-sister to the 2011 group stakes winner Precious Lorraine.

Trained by Anthony and Sam Freedman, Love Takes Time won her debut in a maiden race at a mile at Moe Racecourse on April 25, closing from last in a field of five to win by a about a neck.

The $20 million Saudi Cup will be a Group 1 race starting in 2022 after the International Grading and Race Planning Advisory Committee, a wing of the International Federation of Horseracing Authorities, elevated Saudi Arabia to a Part II racing country this past weekend.

Part III racing countries aren’t eligible for internationally graded races, but Part II countries are, and the Saudi Cup, which was inaugurated as the world’s richest race in February 2020, is going straight to Group 1 status.

Paul Lally:

Race1 1-2-3-5
Race2 1-5-2-9
Race3 10-8-1-3
Race4 3-9-1-5
Race5 5-7-8-1
Race6 8-9-6-2
Race7 3-1-6-11
Race8 1-8-9-2
Race9 8-9-2-10

Best Bet R6 N8 Ernest Feeling
Longshot R3 N10 Packing Champion
Play Race3 QQP 1-8-10

Andrew Le Jeune:

R1: 1-2-8-3
R2: 2-1-9-8
R3: 3-5-8-7
R4: 1-7-4-3
R5: 1-7-5-3
R6: 2-8-6-12
R7: 7-3-4-6
R8: 4-1-9-3
R9: 10-3-1-5

Highland Fortune went winless during a 10-start 2020-21 Hong Kong racing season but has found a good spot in the featured ninth race Wednesday at Happy Valley to break a losing streak.

One of a dozen runners entered in a Class 2 handicap over 1,650 meters, Highland Fortune has a recency edge on most of his rivals, positional pace to work out a favorable trip from a good draw, and a very manageable impost of 116 pounds.

Enable in 2018 became the only horse to win the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe and the Breeders’ Cup Turf in the same season. Barring a change of plans, Torquator Tasso will not get a chance to join her in that rare air.

Agrimony will have his Australia debut in a handicap at 7 1/2 furlongs at Rosehill Gardens Racecourse in Sydney on Wednesday.

Agrimony won a maiden race at about a mile in his third career start at Gowran Park in Ireland in May. Later that month, Agrimony was ninth of 11 in the Group 1 Irish 2000 Guineas at the Curragh later and then seventh of eighth in the Nijinsky Stakes at Leopardstown in his final start in that country on June 3.

A colt by Pivotal, Agrimony is one of three runners in the Rosehill Gardens handicap trained by Chris Waller and a well-regarded starter.

HAPPY VALLEY SELECTIONS
(Wednesday, October 06, 2021)

Pixie Knight, a well-beaten sixth in his Grade 1 debut at a mile earlier this year, won the richest and most prestigious race of his career in Sunday’s Grade 1 Sprinters’ Stakes at Nakayama Racecourse in Japan, easily beating a field of prominent older horses.

In the $2.27 million Sprinters’ Stakes, Pixie Knight ($13.10 in American pools) stalked the pace to the final quarter-mile before pulling away to win by two lengths over 7-5 favorite Resistencia, the champion 2-year-old filly of 2019 in Japan.

The Enzo will have his 42nd career start in a seven-furlong handicap at Mildura Racecourse in Australia on Tuesday.

The small track in the state of Victoria is a relatively new venue for a veteran such as The Enzo, who has won four times in a career that began in 2017.

The 5-year-old horse Space Blues is based with trainer Charlie Appleby in England but has done much of his best work in France, where he was an impressive two-length winner of the Group 1 Prix de la Foret on Sunday.

Held up by William Buick near the back of a 15-runner field, Space Blues came smoothly into contention with a wide homestretch move, bursting into the clear in the final furlong and going on to a two-length victory over Pearls Galore.