Gold Ship, a fixture in top-class races in Japan for the last three years, won the sixth Grade 1 race of his career in Sunday’s $2,603,993 spring running of the Tenno Sho Stakes at Kyoto Racecourse in Japan.
Gold Ship made his third career appearance in the two-mile Tenno Sho on turf, having finished fifth and seventh in the last two years. On Sunday, Gold Ship was the 7-2 second choice in a field of 17.
Legatissimo gave jockey Ryan Moore a sweep of the English one-mile classics for 3-year-olds at Newmarket this weekend, winning Sunday’s $620,330 English 1000 Guineas for fillies.
Moore won Saturday’s English 2000 Guineas with Gleneagles. Legatissimo and Gleneagles are both owned by Michael Tabor, Derrick Smith, and Susan Magnier.
Moore, 31, became the first jockey since Kieren Fallon to win both races in the same year.
Furia Cruzada won Friday’s Group 1 Gran Premio Criadores at Palermo, Argentina, a victory that gives the 4-year-old filly a fees-paid berth to the Breeders’ Cup Distaff at Keeneland on Oct. 31.
To start in that race, Furia Cruzada must be nominated to the Breeders’ Cup program by Oct. 19. According to the Breeders’ Cup’s website, Furia Cruzada is not nominated to the program, but her owners indicated after Friday’s race she has the BC Distaff as an autumn goal and will be made eligible.
Furia Cruzada won the third Group 1 of her career in the Gran Premio Criadores.
Gleneagles soared to the fore of the European 3-year-old mile division, won his fourth group stakes, and gave trainer Aidan O’Brien a record-equaling seventh career win in Saturday’s Group 1 English 2000 Guineas at Newmarket Racecourse.
Sent off as the 4-1 favorite, Gleneagles won the one-mile turf race on a straightaway by 2 1/4 lengths over the French challenger Territories, a 5-1 chance. Ivawood, the winner of two Group 2 races last year, finished third in the field of 18.
The list of top contenders for Sunday’s $620,330 English 1000 Guineas for 3-year-old fillies at Newmarket changed drastically when final declarations were made Friday.
Found, the longtime future-book favorite who was as low as 7-2 in recent betting, was not among the 13 fillies entered for the one-mile turf race. In April, trainer Aidan O’Brien said Found was fighting an elevated temperature and her chances of making the race were in doubt.
Gleneagles, the winner of three group stakes in Ireland last summer, can give trainer Aidan O’Brien a record-equaling seventh career win in Saturday’s Group 1 English 2000 Guineas at Newmarket Racecourse.
Glenagles, by Galileo, has not raced since he finished first in the Prix Jean Luc Lagardere at Longchamp Racecourse in Paris last October, but was disqualified and placed third for causing interference in the stretch of the seven-furlong race.
California Chrome, the 2014 Horse of the Year, will miss an expected start in the $535,500 Lockinge Stakes at Newbury Racecourse in England in May and be trained for the Group 1 Prince of Wales’s Stakes at Royal Ascot in June, trainer Art Sherman said on Tuesday.
California Chrome was second to Prince Bishop in the $10 million Dubai World Cup at Meydan Racecourse in the United Arab Emirates on March 28 in his most recent start. He was sent to trainer Rae Guest’s stable in Newmarket, England, in the week following that race.
Legendary steeplechase jockey A.P. McCoy climbed out of the saddle for the final time at Sandown Park in England on Saturday, ending his career with two third-place finishes on an afternoon that celebrated his career.
McCoy, 40, announced in February that he was retiring this spring and chose Saturday’s final day of the British steeplechase season for the occasion. He ended his career with 4,348 winners. Saturday, he rode Mr. Mole to a third in the A.P. McCoy Celebration Chase, a race named in his honor, and Box Office to a third in the bet365 Handicap Hurdle.
The record-breaking career of steeplechase jockey A.P. McCoy will come to an end at Sandown Park outside of London on Saturday.
McCoy, 40, the winningest jockey in steeplechase history with more than 4,340 victories, announced his retirement in February and has chosen Saturday’s seven-race program as his final day. Saturday’s program marks the end of the 2014-15 British steeplechase season.
Duramente won the first stakes of his career in Sunday’s $1,700,824 Japanese 2000 Guineas at Nakayama Racecourse, giving international jockey Mirco Demuro his first Grade 1 win in Japan since he began riding regularly in the country last month.
Duramente, the 7-2 third choice, closed from the back of the field of 15 to win by 1 1/2 lengths over the 5-2 second choice Real Steel, who led in the stretch in the race at 1 1/4 miles on turf. Duramente was timed in 1:58.20.
