Mikki Rocket ended a streak of nine consecutive graded stakes losses with a first-ever Grade 1 win in Sunday’s $2,644,357 Takarazuka Kinen at Hanshin Racecourse.
The win gave Mikki Rocket an automatic berth to the Breeders’ Cup Turf at Churchill Downs on Nov. 3, although trainer Hidetaka Otonashi said after Sunday’s race that the Grade 1 Japan Cup at Tokyo Racecourse on Nov. 25 is an autumn goal.
Merchant Navy became a Group 1 winner in Europe for the first time in Saturday’s $794,640 Diamond Jubilee Stakes at Royal Ascot in England, a race marred by a controversial start by 5-2 favorite Harry Angel.
The Diamond Jubilee was the main race on the fifth and final day of the Royal Ascot meeting.
The $6 million Dubai Turf at Meydan Racecourse in March has defined the career of Vivlos the last few years. Vivlos won the Group 1 Dubai Turf in 2017 and was second in the same race a few months ago.
Vivlos is based in Japan, where the 5-year-old mare is winless in four starts since the Grade 1 Shuka Sho in October 2016. On Sunday, Vivlos appears well positioned to end the drought in the Grade 1 Takarazuka Kinen at 1 3/8 miles on turf at Hanshin Racecourse.
With consecutive Group 1 wins in the spring, Pakistan Star has made an excellent case to be recognized as the Hong Kong Horse of the Year for the 2017-18 season, which ends next month.
Two runners who chased him in those races – Exultant and Gold Mount – can have their own late-season success in Sunday’s Group 3 Premier Plate at 1 1/8 miles on turf at Sha Tin Racecourse.
Alpha Centauri stole the show Friday at Royal Ascot.
The scopey gray filly cruised up to the lead three paths from the fence as the field swung for home in the Group 1 Coronation Stakes, and by the time she had finished her run, she was six lengths clear as jockey Colm O’Donoghue raised his left fist to the cheering throngs at the finish line.
Alpha Centauri had run one mile over good-to-firm ground on Ascot’s round course in 1:35.49, more than one second faster than Barney Roy’s track-record clocking in the 2017 St. James’s Palace Stakes.
Stradivarius gave legendary trainer John Gosden his first win in the Group 1 Ascot Gold Cup at the Royal Ascot meeting on Thursday.
The win could prove to be quite valuable by the end of the summer.
The win left Stradivarius halfway to a $1.32 million bonus for winning four marathon races in England. The series began with the Yorkshire Cup at York Racecourse last month and continues with the Goodwood Cup on July 31 and the Lonsdale Cup at York on Aug. 24.
The 4-year-old colt Harry Angel has been a top sprinter in England in the last two years – as long as he is away from Ascot.
A four-time group stakes winner, Harry Angel has won 5 of 9 career starts but is winless in four starts at Ascot. Trained by Clive Cox, Harry Angel has run well at Ascot, leaving hope that the losing streak will end in Saturday’s Group 1 Diamond Jubilee Stakes at six furlongs.
SHA TIN SELECTIONS
(Sunday, June 24, 2018)
RACE 1: #1 Bullish Glory, #7 Audacity, #6 Happy Rocky, #5 Enjoyable Success
RACE 2: #10 Chaparral Star, #7 Telecom Titan, #8 Victor Emperor, #3 Newswire Free
RACE 3: #3 Dinozzo, #4 Horse Of Fortune, #1 Exultant, #2 Gold Mount
RACE 4: #2 Giddy Giddy, #1 Amazing Moment, #10 Flying Godspell, #12 Striking Mr C
RACE 5: #8 Enjoy Life, #3 Empire Star, #1 Looking Good, #12 Hinyuen Swiftness
The Group 1 Coronation Stakes and the Group 1 Commonwealth Cup headline the six-race Royal Ascot card on Friday as two more American horses try to land a punch in England.
Wesley Ward, who saw his well-bet chances Lady Aurelia in the King’s Stand on Tuesday and Chelsea Cloisters in the Queen Mary on Wednesday go down quietly, runs the 2-year-old Stillwater Cove in the Albany Stakes, the first race on a program that begins at 9:30 a.m. Eastern on Friday. Todd Pletcher has a horse for the Commonwealth in Gidu, a 25-1 chance in early betting Wednesday.
Poet’s Word ran down the odds-on Cracksman to win the Group 1 Prince of Wales’s Stakes on Wednesday at Royal Ascot.
Michael Stoute, who won a second race later on the card when Expert Eye captured the Jersey Stakes, became the all-time leading Royal Ascot trainer with 76 wins, surpassing the late Henry Cecil when Poet’s Word crossed the line 2 1/4 lengths in front of Cracksman.
It was a tough day for strong favorites, as Chelsea Cloisters never factored as the public choice in the Queen Mary Stakes and Hydrangea ran poorly at a short price in the Duke of Cambridge Stakes.
