The unbeaten stakes winners Kitasan Black and Satono Crown, and the 2014 champion 2-year-old colt Danon Platina, are among 15 colts in Sunday’s $1,700,824 Japanese 2000 Guineas at Nakayama Racecourse.
Kitasan Black, by the Sunday Silence stallion Black Tide, may go favored on the basis of his win in the Grade 2 Spring Stakes at Nakayama in March, a race in which Danon Platina was third in his first start of the year.
California Chrome is on schedule for a European debut in the $522,550 Lockinge Stakes at Newbury Racecourse in England on May 16, trainer Art Sherman said Thursday.
The 2014 Horse of the Year has been based at trainer Rae Guest’s stable at Newmarket, England, for the last two weeks, following a second-place finish to Prince Bishop in the $10 million Dubai World Cup at Meydan Racecourse in the United Arab Emirates on March 28.
The prep-race season for 2015 classic races in the U.S. is over, but overseas, it is in full swing.
At Newmarket in England on Wednesday, there were two such races, following a race in France on Tuesday and one last Sunday in Ireland, with more preps to come Thursday and Saturday this week.
Let’s Go Donki led throughout Sunday’s $1,533,842 Japanese 1000 Guineas for 3-year-old fillies at Hanshin Racecourse, the first leg of the year-long Japanese Triple Crown.
Ridden by Yasunari Iwata for trainer Tomoyuki Umeda, Let’s Go Donki (9-1) won by four lengths over the 22-1 Culminar, who finished three-quarters of a length in front of the 26-1 Contessa Thule in third. Rouge Buck, the 3-5 favorite, could only finish ninth, her first loss in four starts.
Many Clouds, the 163-pound second highweight, gave jockey Leighton Aspell his second consecutive win in the $1,469,200 Grand National steeplechase at 4 7/16ths miles at Aintree Racecourse near Liverpool, England on Saturday.
An 8-year-old Irish-bred gelding, Many Clouds always was near the front of the 39-horse field, took the lead with about six furlongs and five fences remaining, and won by 1 3/4 lengths over Saint Are.
Many Clouds paid 25-1 with bookmakers and was sent off at 31.9-1 through the pari-mutuel system.
Three fillies – Cat Coin, Queens Ring, and Rouge Buck – risk unbeaten records in Sunday’s $1,533,842 Japanese 1000 Guineas for 3-year-old fillies at Hanshin Racecourse. Prerace expectations suggest that one of them will remain unbeaten after the Grade 1 race at about a mile on a right-handed turf course.
Adelaide, the winner of the Grade 1 Secretariat Stakes at Arlington Park last summer and the Group 1 Cox Plate in Australia last October, is among 13 runners in Saturday’s $3,076,000 Queen Elizabeth Stakes at Royal Randwick Racecourse in Australia.
The winner of the race receives an automatic berth to the Breeders’ Cup Turf at Keeneland on Oct. 31, provided the horse is nominated to the Breeders’ Cup program.
All winter, Shutthefrontdoor was kept out of action in steeplechase races in England by design.
The 8-year-old Irish-bred gelding was fine. The goal for trainer Jonjo O’Neill and owner J.P. McManus through the winter was Saturday’s grueling $1,469,200 Grand National Steeplechase at 4 7/16ths miles at Aintree Racecourse near Liverpool.
The preparation may seem unconventional, but Shutthefrontdoor was the 7-1 favorite for the race as of Thursday. Should he win, Shutthefrontdoor will be the most popular winner in years.
Automatic berths for two Breeders’ Cup races at Keeneland in October will be awarded to the winners of seven-figure stakes at Royal Randwick Racecourse in Australia on Saturday.
The winner of the $2,292,000 Doncaster Mile on turf will get an automatic berth for the BC Mile, while the winner of the $1,910,000 Darley T.J. Smith Stakes will earn a spot in the BC Turf Sprint.
The races that California Chrome might attempt at the Royal Ascot meeting in June are annually among the toughest flat races of the year in England.
California Chrome finished second in the $10 million Dubai World Cup on Saturday, and the next day, trainer Art Sherman said the colt will be flown to England rather than back to California, as originally planned. Last year’s Horse of the Year and Kentucky Derby winner, California Chrome will be based in Newmarket with trainer Rae Guest.
