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.

Trekking caught even-money Gytrash in the final stride to record a mild upset in Saturday’s Group 1 Goodwood Stakes at six furlongs at Morphettville Racecourse in Australia.

Trekking, who paid $16.60 in American pools, won by a nose over Gytrash, who was 1 3/4 lengths clear of third-place finisher Lyre, a 3-year-old Southern Hemisphere filly who was facing older male rivals.

Compared to his 13 rivals in a handicap at Tamworth Racecourse in Australia on Monday, Sir Clooney is at the start of his career.

A winner of 1 of 5 starts, Sir Clooney is the most lightly raced runner in the field, and seems capable of improvement, judging from a second in a handicap at about seven furlongs at Quirindi Racecourse last Monday.

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Andrew Le Jeune:

R1: 4-13-2-3

R2: 1-9-13-3

R3: 6-7-9-4

R4: 4-5-11-13

R5: 6-3-9-10

R6: 6-9-11-2

R7: 10-7-1-6

R8: 2-8-4-1

R9: 10-4-9-5

R10: 11-3-2-8

Best: R6 N6 War Of Courage

Each/way: R2 N13 Jazz Steed

Play: R6 Q/QP 6-9-11

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Tom Wood:

R1:      3 – 10 – 7 – 1

R2:      13 – 1 – 9 – 2

R3:      6 – 4 – 1 – 9

Andrew Le Jeune:

R1: 10-3-1-5

R2: 6-1-2-11

R3: 2-1-10-4

R4: 11-3-9-5

R5: 9-2-12-4

R6: 11-3-10-9

R7: 1-4-7-6

R8: 8-3-1-7

R9: 9-6-2-7

Best: R2 N6 Sumstreetsumwhere

Each/way: R4 N11 Daily Beauty

Play: R2 Q/QP #1-2-6

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Mark McNamara:

R1 – 1.3.6.5 

R2 – 6.3.2.11

R3 – 8.11.2.3

R4 – 3.5.8.9

R5 – 10.9.2.3

The filly Almond Eye won the fifth and sixth Grade 1 or Group 1 races of her remarkable career in 2019, and still ended the season with the impression that she had a bad year.

Almond Eye, the 2018 Japanese Horse of the Year, has not raced since a ninth-place finish in the Grade 1 Arima Kinen Stakes at Nakayama Racecourse in December, the only time she has finished outside the top three in her 11-race career.

Grand Crown had won two of his three preceding starts before a seventh-place finish in the richest race of his career, the $127,000 Gold Heath Stakes at Caulfield Racecourse in Australia on April 18.

Grand Crown was beaten 3 1/4 lengths as the 9-2 second choice in the race at 1 1/4 miles on turf, the longest race of his career. A 5-year-old gelding, Grand Crown will have another try at the distance in Sunday’s Casterton Foodworks Cup at Casterton Racecourse, far west of Melbourne in the Australian countryside.

Just as in April you might have started looking at Fonner Park form for the first time, a swing through the race card Friday at Lyon-Parilly could keep a dedicated American horseplayer going through the morning hours Friday.

Lyon-Parilly puts on a 10-race program starting at 5:15 a.m. Eastern, a program that even features a listed stakes race, the Prix Bedel over 1 1/2 miles on ground rated very soft as of Thursday. Only one other European racecourse has a Friday program, with Munich, Germany, running its first card of 2020.

No one is in cracking form, there are no obviously improving horses, and the featured eighth race Sunday at Sha Tin Racecourse is a real handicapping slog.

Eleven are entered in this Class 2 handicap open to horses rated 100-80. The race is carded at 1,800 meters, about 1 1/8 miles, and is run out of a chute at the head of the backstretch and around one right-handed turn. Post time for the feature is 4:35 a.m. Eastern on a 10-race, spectator-free card starting at 1 a.m. Eastern.