CHELTENHAM, England – The 6-year-old gelding King’s Palace has been a reliable runner in hurdle and steeplechase races in England over the last two years – when he finishes.
King’s Palace has won 7 of 11 starts, a record that will make him the favorite in Saturday’s $243,000 Paddy Power Gold Cup at 2 9/16 miles over fences at Cheltenham Racecourse. As of Friday, King’s Palace was the 6-1 favorite in an expected field of 20.
Epsom Derby and Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe winner Golden Horn finished second to Found making his final start in the Breeders’ Cup Turf, but he was judged second to none in European racing during 2015 when named Cartier Horse of the Year on Tuesday in England.
Three-year-old Golden Horn, bred and owned by Anthony Oppenheimer, trained by John Gosden, and ridden by Frankie Dettori, added Group 1 wins in the Eclipse and Irish Champion Stakes to go with his powerhouse Derby-Arc double, and that was more than enough to garner the Cartier Award.
Jockey Michelle Payne made Australian racing history on Tuesday, becoming the first woman to ride the winner of the Melbourne Cup. Payne won the $4.2 million race at Flemington Racecourse aboard 100-1 Prince of Penzance.
Fame Game will attempt to become the first Japanese-trained winner of Australia’s most famous race, the Group 1 Melbourne Cup at Flemington Racecourse on Tuesday.
Fame Game was the 3-1 favorite in future-book betting this weekend to win the two-mile turf race. He is one of several international runners in a race that has drawn successful imports from Europe in recent years.
Lovely Day will be favored to win the Japan Cup on Nov. 29 after winning his second Grade 1 race of 2015 Sunday in the $2,593,850 Tenno Sho at Tokyo Racecourse.
Ridden by Suguru Hamanaka, Lovely Day, the 2-1 favorite, always was near the front, took the lead in early stretch, and won the Grade 1 race at 1 1/4 miles on turf by a half-length over the 33-1 Staphanos. Isla Bonita, a 10-1 chance, finished third in the field of 18.
Spielberg, winner of the 2014 Tenno Sho and third in the 2014 Japan Cup, finished 10th.
Spielberg won the Grade 1 Tenno Sho Stakes at Tokyo Racecourse in October 2014 prior to finishing third in the Japan Cup a month later.
The 6-year-old Spielberg is on the same career path this fall. Sunday, Spielberg is part of a field of 18 in the $2,593,850 Tenno Sho at 1 1/4 miles on turf at Tokyo Racecourse.
Spielberg must prove he can rebound from a recent 10th place finish in the Grade 2 Mainichi Okan Stakes at Tokyo on Oct. 11, his first start since a sixth-place finish in the Group 1 Prince of Wales’s Stakes at Royal Ascot in England in June.
A maiden race winner in July, Vazirabad won his Group 1 debut and fifth consecutive stakes in Sunday’s $385,000 Prix Royal-Oak at 1 15/16 miles on turf at Saint-Cloud Racecourse in Paris.
Ridden by Christophe Soumillon, Vazirabad (12-5) closed from the back of a 13-horse field to take the lead in the final sixteenth. Vazirabad won by a length over Siljan’s Saga, who was eighth in the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe at Longchamp Racecourse on Oct. 4.
Cirrus des Aigles, the 9-year-old gelding with 22 wins, finished fourth in the longest race of his career.
Winx, a Street Cry filly, won her fifth consecutive stakes and third Group 1 in that span Saturday in the $2.16 million Cox Plate at Moonee Valley Racecourse in Australia.
The only filly in a field of 14, Winx rallied on the inside under jockey Hugh Bowman to take the lead in the final quarter-mile. She pulled clear to win the 1 1/4-mile turf race by 4 3/4 lengths over the multiple stakes winner Criterion, a 5-1 shot. Highland Reel, winner of the Grade 1 Secretariat Stakes at Arlington Park in August, finished third at 7-1.
Marcel won his Group 1 debut in Saturday’s $302,800 Racing Post Trophy for 2-year-olds at Doncaster Racecourse in England, rallying wide in the final three furlongs of the race at a straightaway mile on turf and avoiding the troubled that plagued odds-on favorite Foundation.
