Grand Glory posted a big upset Sunday at Deauville, nipping Audarya in the Group 1 Prix Jean Romanet and giving trainer Gianluca Bietolini the biggest win of his career.
Grand Glory came late and wide under Cristian Demuro and was just up in the 1 1/4-mile Romanet, run around a right-handed turn. Thundering Nights, who had an inside trip, finished third, beaten 1 1/4 lengths by the top pair.
With wins in half of her six starts, the Australian filly Lasting Kiss is off to a fine start in her career.
A 4-year-old, Lasting Kiss has won her last two starts, both in sprints in July, and has an excellent chance to extend that streak in a handicap at 5 1/2 furlongs at Lismore Racecourse on Monday.
Trained by Stephen Lee, Lasting Kiss is part of a field of nine. She will have a prominent role as an expected favorite and as a filly who tends to run near the front.
Golden Pal popped and stopped, fading to seventh after setting the pace in the Group 1 Nunthorpe Stakes on Friday at York, but the filly who chased his pace, Winter Power, stayed on strongly to post a 1 1/4-length victory.
Silvestre de Sousa rode the winner for Tim Easterby, a York-based trainer, and 3-year-old Winter Power, winning her first Group 1, already is a three-time York winner this season.
Longshot Emaraaty Ana rallied for third with Dragon Symbol fourth.
Thundering Nights gave 12 pounds to the excellent 3-year-old filly Santa Barbara and beat her in the Pretty Polly Stakes on June 27 at The Curragh, and when Thundering Nights tries to win her second straight Group 1 contest, in the Prix Jean Romanet on Sunday at Deauville, she gives weight to no one.
The Group 1 Yorkshire Oaks on Thursday at York Racecourse in England was a Breeders’ Cup Challenge “Win and You’re In” race offering the winner automatic fees-paid entry into the Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Turf at Del Mar.
The connections of the 3-year-old filly who won the Yorkshire Oaks have far grander plans than that race.
Snowfall’s star already shone bright before her performance Thursday, but now she is glowing as brightly as anything in the racing universe.
In the last 12 months, the Australian-based mare Verry Elleegant has won five Group 1 races, finished second in another, and was seventh in the Group 1 Melbourne Cup last November.
She is rightfully the leading contender for Australia’s Horse of the Year for the 2020-21 season, an award that will be announced in October.
Verry Elleegant begins her 2021-22 campaign in Saturday’s Group 1 Winx Stakes at Royal Randwick Racecourse in Sydney, a race she won in 2020.
A consistent campaign at minor tracks in Australia since early July has left the 6-year-old mare Willo Titto the favorite, and 136.6-pound topweight, in Friday’s Murwillumbah Cup at Murwillumbah Racecourse.
Trained by Michael Costa, Willo Titto was third in a seven-furlong handicap at Grafton Racecourse on July 8, won a handicap at about a mile at Doomben Racecourse on July 24, and was third by less than a half-length in the Coffs Harbour Cup at Coffs Harbour on Aug. 5.
Wesley Ward has been saying all season that Golden Pal might turn out to be the best horse he’s ever trained, but Golden Pal as of Wednesday wasn’t even the antepost favorite for Friday’s Group 1 Nunthorpe Stakes over five furlongs at York.
Mishriff is fully back on track, but the Love train has gone off the tracks.
Winner of the Saudi Cup in February and the Sheema Classic in March, an extraordinary dirt-turf double, Mishriff had been third upon returning to England in the July 3 Eclipse at Sandown, improving to finish second behind star 3-year-old Adayar while giving weight in the King George VI and Queen Elizabeth. Wednesday at York, he put on a show in the Group 1 Juddmonte International, storming to the lead with more than a quarter-mile to race and coming home a six-length winner.
As amazing as Love looked as a 3-year-old filly of 2020 for trainer Aidan O’Brien and Coolmore, Snowfall, the 2021 model, might have been better.
Love, defeated in her second start this season at age 4, her first loss since 2019, tries to make amends Wednesday at York in the Juddmonte International. She had not been scheduled to start in that race until St Mark’s Basilica, O’Brien and Coolmore’s standout 3-year-old colt, suffered an unspecified setback that precluded an international start.
