York | Race 1: G2 Lowther Stakes
AMERICA QUEEN was impressive on debut at Haydock, though I’m not sure about the strength of the race yet.
Haydock to York is a suitable next step as they are quite similar tracks, so she’s had the right prep for this. It’s hard to know whether she’s good enough to mix it in this company, but she’s exciting and Richard [Hughes] has a good team of two-year-olds to pick from.
York | Race 4: G1 Yorkshire Oaks
York is a brilliant racecourse. It’s a lovely track with a great atmosphere and they do everything they can to make this meeting as good as it can be. It’s great to have overseas challengers running in the Juddmonte International again and it looks like being a top meeting.
Final declarations for the Yorkshire Oaks on Thursday at York Racecourse, Day Two of the Ebor Festival, hadn’t been made at press time Monday. But the antepost market set by British bookmakers suggests the result is a foregone conclusion.
Minnie Hauk – a winner of the Oaks at Epsom Downs and the Irish Oaks in her last two starts, 3 for 3 at age 3, and a four-time winner in five career starts – traded Monday at odds of about 4-11. Taking a price lower than 1-2 for a horse in a race three days hence suggests that the horse is something close to a cinch.
Delacroix, getting 10 pounds and a great ride from Ryan Moore, nipped Ombudsman by a neck in the Eclipse Stakes on July 12 at Sandown Park. The weight spread between 3-year-old Delacroix and 4-year-old Ombudsman drops marginally to eight pounds Wednesday in the Group 1 Juddmonte International at York.
John Gosden has trained or co-trained the International winner three of the last seven years, and Gosden, who trains 4-year-old Ombudsman with his son Thady, has proven masterful at bringing later-developers like Ombudsman along at their own pace.
Diego Velazquez upset the Prix Jacques le Marois on Sunday at Deauville Racecourse in France, though the story regarding the Group 1 Marois included key roles for the runner-up and a non-participant.
Racing just four days after being purchased by owner Sam Sangster, who plans to stand 4-year-old Diego Velazquez at stud after this racing season, Diego Velazquez, making his 11th start, won for the first time at the Group 1 level. Aidan O’Brien trains the winner, whose task became easier when likely favorite Rosallion was scratched because of a bruised hoof.
The jockey Christophe Lemaire’s return to France comes on a filly who has yet to race anywhere in Europe.
Ascoli Piceno, a high-level Japan-based sprinter-miler, traveled to Australia last September, finishing a subpar 12th, and went to Saudi Arabia in February, winning the 1351 Turf Sprint, so named because of its distance in meters. Sunday, she starts in the Group 1 Prix Jacques Le Marois at Deauville Racecourse in France, Lemaire’s home country and riding base before he became a full-time Japanese jockey in 2015.
A week later than expected, the 8-year-old gelding Private Eye will be favored to win a Group 2 sprint in Australia in Friday’s $196,300 P.B. Lawrence Stakes at Caulfield. He faces a field that includes three former North American-based mares.
Dusseldorf | Race 5: Preis der Diana ‐ German Oaks
I’m looking forward to the trip to Dusseldorf on Sunday for the German Oaks.
GARDEN OF EDEN has improved throughout the season, especially as she’s gone up in trip.
She was a good winner at Naas (2100m) and then followed that up nicely at Ascot over further in the Ribblesdale Stakes (2400m). That form gives her leading claims in here.
Fallen Angel, winning at the Group 1 level for the first time in 14 months, captured the Group 1 Prix Rothschild by a head Sunday at Deauville Racecourse.
The early leader in the Rothschild, a straight-course mile for fillies and mares, Fallen Angel was headed inside the final furlong by favored January but came back and eked out a narrow victory, her first top-level score since the Irish 1000 Guineas in late May 2024.
The German-bred filly Matilda finished fifth at 19-1 debuting March 30 at Cologne in a conditions race. Two starts and four months later, much has changed – including her owner, trainer, and jockey, and country of residence.
At odds of 9-1, Matilda romped second time out in another Cologne conditions race, and at 25-1 on May 18, she absolutely crushed eight rivals, six of them colts, in the Group 2 German 2000 Guineas. Tracking the leader in a one-turn mile, Matilda took command in midstretch and powered to a 6 1/2-length victory.
