The Group 1 Falmouth Stakes for female milers at Newmarket, England, on Friday lost a leading contender when the Grade 1 winner Euro Charline was retired on Wednesday because of a tendon injury.
The announcement was made by the Team Valor International syndicate, which owns the 5-year-old mare. Euro Charline will be offered at the Tattersalls December sale in Newmarket. Euro Charline suffered the injury while training for the Falmouth Stakes.
Vazirabad has been the dominant stayer in France and Dubai in the last year, winning seven consecutive group stakes at distances ranging from 1 11/16 miles to two miles. Sunday, the 4-year-old Vazirabad will start in his shortest race in more than a year in the $445,480 Grand Prix de Saint-Cloud at 1 1/2 miles on turf in Paris.
Seven horses headed by the 3-year-old The Gurkha and the 4-year-old Time Test are set to take their chances Saturday at Sandown Park in the Group 1 Eclipse Stakes.
The Eclipse is the historical jumping-off point for 3-year-olds to start facing older horses, and Golden Horn won the race last year for his first victory outside of his age set. The Gurkha is this year’s hot sophomore commodity, and to compensate for a disadvantage in maturity, he gets an 11-pound weight break (133 to 122) from older horses like Time Test.
Minding won her third Group 1 race in the last two months with an easy victory in Sunday’s $279,375 Pretty Polly Stakes for fillies and mares at The Curragh in Ireland.
Sent off at 1-5 in a field of five, Minding caught pacesetter Bocca Baciata, a 25-1 shot, in the final furlong and won by 4 1/2 lengths. Bocca Baciata held second in the race at 1 1/4 miles on turf, finishing five lengths clear of 14-1 Lucida.
Minding, the winner of the Group 1 English Oaks on June 2, will be a heavy favorite to win her third Group 1 race of 2016 in Sunday’s $279,375 Pretty Polly Stakes for fillies and mares at The Curragh in Ireland.
Trained by Aidan O’Brien, Minding won the Group 1 English 1000 Guineas at Newmarket on May 1 before finishing second by a head in the Group 1 Irish 1000 Guineas at The Curragh on May 22. In the English Oaks at 1 1/2 miles, Minding won by 1 3/4 lengths as the 10-11 favorite in the longest start of her eight-race career.
Harzand will try to win his second derby of the year Saturday at The Curragh in the Group 1 Irish Derby.
Harzand rallied from midpack June 4 to score a game win in the Epsom Derby, a start he nearly missed after painfully dislodging a shoe while traveling to the race from trainer Dermot Weld’s base in Ireland. Weld said this week that Harzand wasn’t a certain starter Saturday while coming back just two weeks after his win at Epsom, but he was among the nine runners declared Thursday for the race.
Norm Casse was ready for a nap at midmorning Monday, his internal clock still off a tick after spending close to two weeks in England. But the horse with whom he traveled overseas, Tepin, has shown no such lingering malaise after a memorable win June 14 in the Group 1 Queen Anne Stakes at Royal Ascot.
“I’ve been tired the two days since I got back, but the days I was there after the race, she didn’t seem tired at all,” said Casse, assistant to his father, trainer Mark Casse. “I don’t know what to tell you – she’s pretty special.”
International titan Galileo once again asserted his dominance at Royal Ascot, recording five winners at the meeting, led by Order of St George in the Group 1 Gold Cup in Honor of the Queen’s 90th Birthday.
Galileo also took the Duke of Edinburgh Stakes with Kinema, the Queen's Vase with Sword Fighter, the Chesham Stakes with Churchill, and the Wolferton with Sir Isaac Newton. He is also the broodmare sire of Group 1 St. James’s Palace winner Galileo Gold and Hardwicke Stakes winner Dartmouth.
Twilight Son won the second Group 1 race of his career and gave jockey Ryan Moore his third stakes win on the card Saturday with a narrow victory in the $861,720 Diamond Jubilee Stakes on the fifth and final day of the Royal Ascot meeting.
Twilight Son (7-2) won the six-furlong race by a neck over 7-1 Gold Fun, who finished a nose in front of 25-1 Signs of Blessing. Magical Memory, the 3-1 favorite, finished fourth in the field of nine, beaten a half-length.
