Lucky Lilac was the champion 2-year-old filly in Japan last year on the strength of an unbeaten three-race campaign that included two graded stakes wins.
She appears to be in equally good form this year in advance of Sunday’s Grade 1 Japanese 1,000 Guineas at Hanshin Racecourse. Lucky Lilac won her first start of 2018 in the Grade 2 Tulip Sho by two lengths at a mile on turf at Hanshin on March 3.
SHA TIN SELECTIONS
(Sunday, April 8, 2018)
:: Hong Kong: Free PPs, picks, and analysis
RACE 1: #8 Team Spirit, #7 Superich, #2 Peace Combination, #13 Magic Success
RACE 2: #8 Happy Friendship, #2 Happy Beauty, #5 Glenealy Prize, #1 Mi Blanco
RACE 3: #1 Bullish Glory, #7 Ever Laugh, #9 Play It, #12 Aeroluminance
In their lone meeting, the Hong Kong sprinters Mr Stunning and Beat the Clock were inseparable. They finished in a dead heat for second, a neck behind D B Pin, in the Group 1 Centenary Sprint Cup at Sha Tin on Jan. 28.
The next Group 1 sprint at six furlongs at Sha Tin is the $2.038 million Chairman’s Sprint Prize on April 29, a race in which Mr Stunning and Beat the Clock are the first two choices in future-book betting. They will have their final prep race in Sunday’s Group 2 Sprint Cup at six furlongs at Sha Tin.
Forgive Happy Clapper and Kementari for their recent losses in major stakes in Australia. After all, they finished behind Winx, who has won her last 24 starts. Kementari and Happy Clapper will not face Winx in Saturday’s Group 1, $2.31 million Doncaster Mile at Randwick Racecourse outside of Sydney.
As of Wednesday, they were the two leading choices in future-book betting for a race, which is part of the Breeders’ Cup Win and You’re In program. The winner of the Doncaster Mile will receive a fees-paid berth for the BC Mile at Churchill Downs on Nov. 3.
In the last year, Suave Richard has evolved from a contender in Japan’s leading races to winning such events.
On Sunday at Hanshin Racecourse near Osaka, Suave Richard won his first Grade 1 race in the $2,439,529 Osaka Hai at 1 1/4 miles on turf, his third graded stakes victory in his last four starts. The only loss in the sequence was a fourth in the Grade 1 Arima Kinen in December behind Kitasan Black, the Japanese Horse of the Year in 2016 and 2017.
Earlier in 2017, Suave Richard was sixth in the Japanese 2000 Guineas and second in the Japanese Derby.
Benbatl arrived in Dubai last fall as a Group 3 winner at Royal Ascot earlier in the year who had shown ample promise. Benbatl will return to England in the coming weeks as a Group 1 winner expected to be part of Europe’s leading turf races.
On Saturday at Meydan Racecourse, Benbatl scored a career-defining win in the $6 million Dubai Turf at 1 1/8 miles on the Dubai World Cup program. The Dubai Turf was Benbatl’s first win in a Group 1 and his fourth group stakes win.
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates – Chad Summers, the trainer and co-owner of Mind Your Biscuits, was asked just before the Group 1, $2 million Dubai Golden Shaheen if his horse was as good Saturday night as he’d been a year ago, when Mind Your Biscuits won the Shaheen by three lengths.
“He’s better,” Summers said.
At the last minute, Jungle Cat became Godolphin Racing’s best hope for Saturday’s Group 1 Al Quoz Sprint at Meydan Racecourse in the United Arab Emirates. The 6-year-old veteran lived up to late expectations.
Jungle Cat was one of three Godolphin-owned runners in the $1 million Al Quoz Sprint on turf, a team that shockingly became two hopefuls when favorite Blue Point was scratched as the field was being loaded for the six-furlong race. Blue Point was reported to have had blood in a nostril.
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates – Aidan O’Brien said before the UAE Derby that Mendelssohn is the horse best suited to the Kentucky Derby that he’s ever trained. He’s surely not saying anything different now.
Mendelssohn made his dirt debut in the Grade 2, $2 million UAE Derby and won almost from Dubai to Kentucky.
And Kentucky, all being well, is where Mendelssohn is headed as an intriguing horse for the Kentucky Derby on May 5 at Churchill Downs.
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates – Leave it to jockey Christophe Soumillon to sum up the nature of Vazirabad in one efficient phrase.
“My horse saw the horses in front of him, and he just wants to catch them,” Soumillon said.
Wants to, and usually does. On Saturday, Vazirabad came from the back of the pack with a mighty blast and cut down those horses in front of him. Buzzing to the front with about 100 meters to run, he won the $1 million Dubai Gold Cup for the third year in a row. No other horse has won a World Cup race three years running.
