Gitan has won both of his career starts at Hawkesbury Racecourse in Australia, success worth noting when the gelding starts in a competitive handicap at 5 1/2 furlongs at the venue northwest of Sydney on Thursday.
Trained by Jean Dubois, Gitan, 6, won a seven-furlong handicap at Hawkesbury last December, but is winless in three subsequent starts this year. This will be Gitan’s first start since a fifth in a seven-furlong handicap at Wagga Wagga Racecourse in February.
Tom Wood
R1: 2-4-8-5
R2: 7-8-9-3
R3: 3-6-5-2
R4: 3-2-5-1
R5: 1-8-7-3
R6: 4-2-1-10
R7: 3-1-7-9
R8: 2-7-8-3
R9: 7-1-4-2
BEST: R9 – 7 SHINING GEM (EW)
VALUE: R6 – 1 FLYING BONUS (EW)
PLAY: R6 – QQP 1,2,4
A pair of conditions races for 3-year-olds, one restricted to fillies, the other open, highlight a 10-race program at Saint-Cloud in France, one of only two racecourses in Europe with a Tuesday card.
Hanover in Germany also races Tuesday, hosting a 12-race program. England is set to resume racing on June 4, Ireland shortly thereafter, but until then, France and Germany remain the lone European jurisdictions carding races.
A nine-race program Wednesday at Happy Valley Racecourse in Hong Kong concludes with a cracking feature, a Class 2 handicap bursting with last-start winners.
Four of the 12 entrants won their most recent race, while a fifth horse, Prince of Frog, makes his first start outside Australia in this 1,200-meter sprint for horses rated 100-80.
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Zaunkonig was second in the Tamworth Cup in Australia on April 26, the 7-year-old gelding’s first start since September. Zaunkonig was 50-1 and closed from eighth in a field of 14 to miss by a nose to Ligulate in the seven-furlong handicap.
More than three weeks later, Zaunkonig appears to have conditions in his favor in the TAB Handicap at 7 3/4 furlongs on the Kensington course at Royal Randwick Racecourse in Sydney. The Kensington course is the inner turf course at Randwick.
Racing will return in England on June 1 and in Ireland on June 8. Cards will be conducted spectator-free for the foreseeable future, but horsemen and bettors alike expressed relief and satisfaction when plans to restart the flat-racing season in two of Europe’s major jurisdictions were formed late last week.
Racing was halted throughout Europe in mid-March because of the coronavirus pandemic. Germany was the first country to begin racing again this month, with France hosting its first post-pandemic program May 11 at Longchamp.
On Feb. 10, 2019, Skalleti finished eighth in a listed stakes race over the Polytrack at Cagnes-Sur-Mer. The exact date and location seems important because it’s the only loss in Skalleti’s 10-race career.
The nine wins follow a path very rarely – if ever – traveled. Skalleti has won at minor racecourses like Nimes and Vichy, and three wins have come at Marseilles-Pont-de-Vivaux, an all-weather track in the south of France that’s basically a home racecourse for Skalleti, based between Marseille and Aix-En-Provence with trainer Jerome Reynier in Calas-Cabries.
Almond Eye recorded the widest winning margin of her 12-race career in Sunday’s Grade 1 Victoria Mile for fillies and mares at Tokyo Racecourse, narrowly missing the course record.
Almond Eye, who paid $3.10 in American pools, closed from sixth in a field of 16 to win by four lengths over Sound Chiara, a 11-1 chance who made her Grade 1 debut in the $1.9 million Victoria Mile.
Ridden by Christophe Lemaire, Almond Eye was timed in 1:30.6, a tenth of a second behind the course record. Normcore (10-1) finished third.
There were plenty of hints through 2019 that the Southern Hemisphere gelding Catapult had ability. Three times in four starts, he finished second, once by a half-length.
Catapult was rested during the Australian summer. Since his return to racing in April, Catapult is unbeaten in two starts at five furlongs at Goulburn Racecourse – a maiden race and a minor handicap.
Catapult will face the toughest test of his brief career in a six-furlong handicap at Kembla Grange Racecourse south of Sydney on Tuesday.
