Obligate, unbeaten in three starts, will face by far the toughest test of her young career in Sunday’s Group 1 Prix Rothschild for fillies and mares at a mile on turf at Deauville, France.
Obligate is one of three 3-year-olds in a field of nine in the $333,840 Rothschild Stakes, the leading race for female milers at the summertime Deauville meeting. Judging from her recent performances, Obligate has every chance to extend her winning streak in her first start outside of her age group.
The entire point of judiciously employing the term “great” is to save it for things that truly merit the description, to make sure “great” still means something.
Well, here is a real chance to let it rip, as the great Enable takes to the races again Saturday at Ascot in the Group 1 King George VI and Queen Elizabeth Stakes.
Twelve races, 11 wins, a 10-race win streak, eight Group 1’s, two Arcs, the only horse to win the Arc and the Breeders’ Cup Turf in the same season – yep, that seems to qualify Enable in the pantheon of greatness.
The ascendant Star Catcher, ridden by Frankie Dettori, his star still shining bright, proved uncatchable Saturday at The Curragh, making all the pace and holding off Fleeting by a half-length to win the Group 1 Irish Oaks.
Fleeting, beaten 1 1/2 lengths by Star Catcher when the fillies finished one-two last month in the Ribblesdale Stakes at Royal Ascot over this same 1 1/2-mile trip, made serious midstretch inroads on Star Catcher’s lead, but Dettori had perfectly figured the pace, and Star Catcher had enough energy for one final winning push in the last half-furlong.
Japan won the Group 1 Grand Prix de Paris on Sunday going 1 1/2 miles at Longchamp – the same course and distance where the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe will be contested in October. That race, Europe’s most important, figures to on Japan’s autumn agenda after he scored a half-length win over Slalom on Sunday.
John Size clinched his 11th training title with two wins on Sunday’s 11-race program at Sha Tin Racecourse in Hong Kong, the final day of that circuit’s 2018-19 season.
Size ended the season with 78 wins and won the training title for the third consecutive year. Size, 65, finished three wins clear of 69-year-old John Moore, who has won seven training titles and is the all-time leader in Hong Kong with 1,678 wins.
SHA TIN SELECTIONS
Sunday, July 14, 2019
:: Hong Kong: Free PPs, picks, and analysis
Brett Davis
R1: 4-10-1-6
R2: 8-12-7-13
R3: 9-13-7-1
R4: 4-3-5-9
R5: 7-10-2-8
R6: 10-8-11-12
R7: 5-3-1-7
R8: 10-4-7-1
R9: 1-2-14-10
R10: 7-6-2-3
R11: 10-7-4-9
Best Bet – R3: #9 Have Fun Together
Longshot – R6: #10 Bullish Glory
Best Play – R9: Trio 1 / 2,8,10,14
Ten Sovereigns rebounded from a fourth-place finish as the even-money favorite in the Group 1 Commonwealth Cup at Royal Ascot on July 21 to win for the first time this year in Saturday’s Group 1 July Cup against older sprinters at Newmarket Racecourse in England.
Ridden by Ryan Moore, Ten Sovereigns (9-2) led early in the six-furlong race and briefly yielded the advantage to 20-1 Glorious Journey before retaking command in the final furlong.
Ten Sovereigns finished 2 3/4 lengths clear of 3-1 favorite Advertise, who won the Commonwealth Cup.
A perfect season gave Beauty Generation his second consecutive Horse of the Year title in Hong Kong for the 2018-19 season that ends this weekend.
Beauty Generation, a 6-year-old New Zealand-bred gelding, won a record eight races, all at Sha Tin Racecourse, from early October to late April. Trained by John Moore, Beauty Generation won four Group 1 races, including two international races – the Hong Kong Mile in December and the Champions Mile in April.
