Beauty Generation once was the golden gelding of Hong Kong racing, but a horse of a different generation, Golden Sixty, has come to inherit the throne.
Palace Pier is being treated like Europe’s next star miler, and possibly for good reason. Five for five, a winner of consecutive Group 1’s, Palace Pier is odds-on to win the Group 1 Queen Elizabeth II Stakes on Saturday at Ascot.
It’s Magical versus Mishriff in the Group 1 Champion Stakes on Saturday at Ascot.
With the retirement of Enable, Magical assumes the role of top European older female in training, a position she’s favored to maintain in the 1 1/4-mile Champion, headliner on the annual QIPCO Champions Day. Three-year-old Mishriff is based in England but makes his first group stakes start there Saturday, having risen rapidly to prominence this summer winning the Prix du Jockey Club (French Derby) and more recently the Group 2 Prix Guillaume d’Ornano on Aug. 15 at Deauville.
The title of 2020 Australian Horse of the Year has been weighed heavily on Nature Spirit, who starts in Saturday’s $10.7 million Everest Stakes at Royal Randwick Racecourse in Sydney.
In the last month, Nature Spirit lost his rider during a training race and later finished fourth as the 6-5 favorite in the Group 2 Premiere Stakes at six furlongs on Oct. 3 at Randwick. He led to the final furlong before fading.
Andrew Le Jeune
R1: 1-11-4-9
R2: 2-5-11-6
R3: 6-4-10-1
R4: 10-8-4-1
R5: 1-11-4-8
R6: 7-10-1-8
R7: 7-1-2-3
R8: 2-3-9-5
Best: R7 N7 Wealthy Delight
Each/way: R3 N6 Carry The Diamond
Play: R7 Q/QP 1-2-7
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Green Luck began his 2019-2020 Hong Kong season winning a Class 2 handicap over 1,650 meters at Happy Valley and might start his 2020-2021 campaign Wednesday night the same way.
Joao Moreira rode Green Luck for trainer Caspar Fownes on Sept. 11, 2019 as Green Luck swooped to a 1 1/2-length victory under the same conditions he encounters in the last of eight races at Happy Valley. Green Luck proceeded to lose his next 12 starts, but as soon as he dipped down to a Class 3 handicap, also at 1,650 meters around the Happy Valley course, he won again on June 10.
In the end, Enable wasn’t able to become the first three-time winner of the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe, but that is no reason not to celebrate the end of the mare’s brilliant racing career.
Enable officially was retired from racing Monday, eight days after she finished sixth while starting in her fourth Arc.
It was a one-two sweep for trainer Aidan O’Brien in the Group 1 Dewhurst Stakes on Saturday at Newmarket as St. Mark’s Basilica improved considerably from his National Stakes performance last month in Ireland and beat Wembley by a half-length in the straight-course, seven-furlong contest for 2-year-olds.