Winx’s connections quashed a run in the Queen Anne Stakes in June at Royal Ascot but are game for a start in the Queen Elizabeth Stakes on Saturday at Randwick Racecourse in Australia.

Winx is not going abroad anytime soon, but in the Group 1, $1.9 million Queen Elizabeth she’ll be going for her 25th consecutive victory, a mark that would equal that of the great Australian female sprinter Black Caviar. Winx’s 24 straight wins include 17 Group 1’s as well as a triumph a year ago in this very race, which she won by five lengths over Hartnell.

HAPPY VALLEY SELECTIONS

(Wednesday, April 11)

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The streaking Litterateur tries for his third straight win when he faces nine foes in the featured Pottinger Handicap, race 7 of eight on Wednesday night at Happy Valley in Hong Kong.

A third win in a row is a big ask for Litterateur, a 6-year-old Irish-bred gelding trained by Richard Gibson. The Pottinger, contested at 1650 meters, one lap around the Happy Valley course, is a Class 2 handicap for horses rated 80-100. Not only is Litterateur top-rated at 91 and correspondingly the 133-pound highweight, he is up in class from a Class 3 win in his most recent start.

Dice Roll slogged over heavy ground Monday at Deauville Racecourse in France and won the Group 3 Prix Djebel by four lengths.

Breeders’ Cup has designated four stakes races scheduled for the 2018 Royal Ascot meeting in England as races that will earn the winner an automatic berth in one of the event’s 14 races, the organization announced Monday.

HAPPY VALLEY SELECTIONS
(Wednesday April 11, 2018)

Prep races for the French 1,000 and 2,000 Guineas originally scheduled to be run at Maisons-Laffitte but moved because of wet conditions will be run Monday at Deauville.

The Group 3 Prix Impudence for 3-year-old fillies over seven furlongs drew nine entrants, none of whom presently rate among the leading hopes for the French filly classics.

Spaday, trained by Carlos Laffon-Parias for the Wertheimer brothers, might be slightly more interesting than the four other top contenders.

Almond Eye dethroned champion Lucky Lilac in Sunday’s Grade 1 Japanese 1000 Guineas at Hanshin Racecourse.

Almond Eye, the 5-2 second choice, caught 9-10 favorite Lucky Lilac in deep stretch to win the one-mile turf race by 1 3/4 lengths in a stakes-record time of 1:33.20. The $2.12 million 1000 Guineas was the first loss in five starts for Lucky Lilac, the champion 2-year-old filly of 2017.

Beat the Clock and Mr Stunning finished first and second in the Group 2 Sprint Cup at six furlongs on turf at Sha Tin Racecourse in Hong Kong on Sunday, giving trainer John Size a deep team for the Group 1 Chairman’s Sprint Prize on the same course April 29.

Happy Clapper won his second Group 1 race of 2018 with Saturday’s $2.31 million Doncaster Mile at Randwick Racecourse in Australia, earning a fees-paid berth to the Breeders’ Cup Mile at Churchill Downs in November.

There was no immediate indication Happy Clapper would be considered for the race, but he has a berth, if nominated to the Breeders’ Cup program by the time pre-entries are accepted in October.