Brett Davis' and Paul Lally's Sha Tin selections for Sunday, Sept. 11, 2016.
Brett Davis - Selections
Race 1 - 4/9/6/2/5
Race 2 - 11/1/6/8/10
Race 3 - 11/7/13/5/1
Race 4 - 2/1/9/10/8
Race 5 - 2/10/8/14/9
Race 6 - 5/11/12/8/7
Race 7 - 11/3/1/10/5
Race 8 - 3/4/10/8/1
Race 9 - 4/5/7/11/6
Race 10 - 10/11/9/5/6
The Prix Vermeille for fillies is the lone Group 1 prep race for the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe on the Sunday card at Chantilly, but it is the Group 2 Prix Niel for 3-year-olds that will attract the most attention. The race features the European debut of Makahiki, the latest Japanese horse in France to try to win the Arc.
The group stakes winners Brave Anna and Rhododendron are part of trainer Aidan O’Brien’s four-runner team in Sunday’s Group 1 Moyglare Stud Stakes for 2-year-old fillies at The Curragh in Ireland, a race that could have implications for the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies Turf at Santa Anita on Nov. 4.
The $392,400 Moyglare Stud Stakes is part of the Breeders’ Cup Win and You’re In program, offering a fees-paid berth to the BC Juvenile Fillies Turf.
Minding and Idaho give Irish trainer Aidan O’Brien strong favorites in two Group 1 races on both sides of the Irish Sea on Saturday: the $1.4 million Irish Champion Stakes at Leopardstown and the $931,980 English St. Leger at Doncaster.
Minding, a 3-year-old filly, can win the seventh Group 1 race of her career in the Irish Champion Stakes at 1 1/4 miles on turf. Earlier this year, she won Group 1 races in the English 1000 Guineas, the English Oaks, the Pretty Polly Stakes in Ireland, and the Nassau Stakes against older fillies and mares at Goodwood Racecourse in England.
All You Wish and Joyful Trinity ended the 2015-16 Hong Kong season with wins in June and July. When they have their first starts of the 2016-17 season in Sunday’s Kwangtung Handicap at Sha Tin Racecourse, the pair will face two rivals in Helene Super Star and Horse of Fortune with recent group-race form.
The Kwangtung Handicap, run at seven furlongs on turf, is the ninth race on a 10-race program, the second of the season at Sha Tin.
The stakes-winning fillies Omei Sword and Yankee Rose face 11 males in Saturday’s Group 1 Golden Rose Stakes for 3-year-olds at seven furlongs on turf at Rosehill Gardens Racecourse near Sydney, Australia.
Omei Sword, the winner of the Group 2 Silver Shadow Stakes at Randwick Racecourse on Aug. 20, was the future-book favorite at 5-2 in midweek for the Golden Rose Stakes, which has an approximate purse of $767,200. Trained by Chris Waller, Omei Sword, by High Chaparral, has won 2 of 4 starts. The Silver Shadow Stakes at six furlongs was her first stakes win.
Pablosky, a 5-year-old Irish-bred gelding who won a handicap in April, is the 133-pound highweight in Wednesday’s $161,290 Yau Oi Handicap at six furlongs on turf at Happy Valley Racecourse in Hong Kong.
The Yau Oi Handicap is the eighth and final race on the first night of racing at Happy Valley of the 2016-17 Hong Kong racing season. The Yau Oi Handicap is the richest race on the program and drew a field of 12.
It has been five years since the wonderful filly Danedream won the Group 1 Grosser Preis von Baden as a 3-year-old filly facing older males, and perhaps Serienholde can reprise Danedream’s first of two consecutive wins in the race on Sunday at Baden-Baden Racecourse in Germany.