On Monday, eight horses remained in the entries for the Group 1 Standard Chartered Champions and Chater Cup on Sunday at Sha Tin Racecourse, but the best horse in Hong Kong no longer is among them.
Golden Sixty’s connections, with little fanfare, evidently have elected to call a halt to the gelding’s 2020-21 racing season, awaiting the 2021-22 season to try and extend Golden Sixty’s winning streak to 15.
A recent win and the presence of top Australian jockey James McDonald will make Fashchanel a solid favorite to win for the fourth time in her eighth start in a seven-furlong handicap for fillies and mares on the Kensington course at Royal Randwick Racecourse in Sydney, Australia, on Wednesday.
Fashchanel, a 4-year-old New Zealand-bred mare, won a seven-furlong handicap for fillies and mares on the infield Kensington course on April 25 as the 5-2 joint favorite in a field of nine. She will be a clear favorite against eight rivals on Wednesday.
Berruti, who will start favored in a seven-furlong handicap at Tamworth Racecourse in Australia on Monday, has not performed as expected in his seven-race career, or his latest start.
Berruti, a winner of 2 of 7 starts, is by Medaglia d’Oro and is a half-brother to Shooting to Win, the winner of the Group 1 Caulfield Guineas in Melbourne, Australia, in 2014.
The exciting 3-year-old Fantastic Treasure steps up to his highest class level while trying to stretch his unbeaten mark to five wins from five starts in the co-featured 10th race, a Class 2, Sunday at Sha Tin.
Amy’s Shadow drew post 6 in a field of 12 in the Parkes Cup at a mile at tiny Parkes Racecourse in Australia on Sunday.
A middle position in the gate is about as far outside as anyone would prefer in a race that begins on the first turn of the track, which has a circumference of 1 1/4 miles.
On April 4, the two-time champion Gran Alegria started at 1 1/4 miles for the first time in her career in the Grade 1 Osaka Hai at Hanshin Racecourse in Japan, finishing fourth on soft turf.
The experiment was worth a try, but is unlikely to be replicated.
Gran Alegria had won her three previous starts, all in Grade 1 races, at distances ranging from six furlongs to a mile from June to November of 2020.
A pair of Ireland-based colts who last raced in England top the 12 entrants in Sunday’s Group 1 Poule d’Essai des Poulains, the French 2000 Guineas, to be run Sunday at Longchamp.
Poetic Flare, trained in Ireland by Jim Bolger, won the English 2000 Guineas on May 1 at Newmarket. No horse in the modern era has managed to win both the English and French versions of the 2000 Guineas. Poetic Flare won two weeks ago going down the straight course at Newmarket over good-to-firm going; Sunday, he races around a bend over a course that was called good to soft as of Friday.
