The 2015 Royal Ascot meeting will feature a new Group 1 race for 3-year-olds sprinters, the racecourse announced earlier this week.
The Commonwealth Cup will be run June 19 and will carry a purse of $588,750 at current exchange rates. On Wednesday, trainer Wesley Ward said he is considering the race for Hootenanny, the winner of the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf at Santa Anita, and Sunset Glow, who won the Grade 1 Del Mar Debutante in August.
The brilliant 3-year-old miler Kingman has been named the Cartier Horse of the Year for 2014, it was announced Tuesday.
Bred and owned by the Juddmonte Farms of Khalid Abdullah and trained by John Gosden, Kingman won 5 of 6 starts during his 2014 campaign. In his only loss he finished second in the English 2000 Guineas to Night of Thunder.
Protectionist, a 7-1 shot ridden by Ryan Moore, won Tuesday’s $5,241,600 Melbourne Cup in Australia, part of a winning exacta of European shippers in the field of 22.
Trained in Germany by Andreas Wolher, Protectionist closed from the back of the field to win by four lengths over the 8-year-old Red Cadeaux, trained in England by Ed Dunlop. Who Shot thebarman, a 20-1 shot, finished third.
Red Cadeaux has run in the last four Melbourne Cups, also finishing second in 2011 and 2013.
Admire Rakti, the winner of the Group 1 Caulfield Cup on Oct. 18, is a lukewarm 4-1 choice to win Tuesday’s $5,241,600 Melbourne Cup against 23 rivals at Flemington Racecourse.
Admire Rakti, trained by Tomoyuki Umeda, was a stakes winner in Japan and fourth in the 2013 Japan Cup before winning the Caulfield Cup over 1 1/2 miles by a half-length. A 6-year-old horse by Heart’s Cry, Admire Rakti will carry the high weight of 128.7 pounds in the Melbourne Cup over two miles. Zac Purton, who rode Admire Rakti in the Caulfield Cup, has the mount.
Fawkner, a Group 1 winner on Oct. 11, can solidify his claims for the Melbourne Cup on Nov. 4 in Saturday’s $2,638,500 Cox Plate at Moonee Valley Racecourse in Australia.
A 7-year-old gelding, Fawkner will be favored in a field of 14 in the Group 1 Cox Plate, run over about 1 1/4 miles on turf. Fawkner is considered a 12-1 chance for the two-mile Melbourne Cup.
The Cox Plate drew an international field, including Adelaide and Side Glance, who raced with success in the United States over the summer.
Noble Mission ensured that Ascot's flat-season finale had a truly emotional finish as he beat Al Kazeem by a neck in a thrilling edition of the QIPCO Champion Stakes on Saturday.
Two years earlier, equine great Frankel had finished his unbeaten career in the very same race as his full brother, and his tremendously popular trainer, Sir Henry Cecil, was to die the following summer. His widow, Lady Jane, was left to take over the historic Cecil stable in Newmarket, and she was struggling to compose herself afterward.
Charm Spirit completed a wonderful spell for the Head family with a brave victory in the Queen Elizabeth II Stakes at Ascot on Saturday.
A fortnight ago, Criquette Head-Maarek's filly Treve became a very rare dual winner of the Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe in Paris, and her brother, Freddy, was able to show off his considerable capabilities as a trainer in this QIPCO British Champions Day Group 1, worth more than $1 million.
Admire Rakti won the biggest race of his career in Saturday’s $2,634,000 Caulfield Cup in Australia and immediately vaulted to the top of future-book lists for the Melbourne Cup on Nov. 4.
A 6-year-old Japanese-bred, Admire Rakti (10-1) closed from the middle of a field of 18 to take the lead from longtime leader Rising Romance in the final sixteenth of the race over 1 1/2 miles on turf. Lucia Valentina, the 3-1 favorite, finished third, beaten a length.
Madame Chiang, who struggled against top-class company in the English Oaks and Prix Vermeille in France in recent starts, had no difficulty with the heavy ground at Ascot Racecourse in England on Saturday, scoring an upset win in the $880,000 QIPCO British Champions Fillies and Mares Stakes.
Second or third in his last four starts, and previously a winner only once this year, the 7-year-old Gordon Lord Byron broke through with a powerful, brave victory in the Group 2 QIPCO British Champions Sprint on Saturday at Ascot in England.
Trapped behind horses for much of the six-furlong trip, Gordon Lord Byron and jockey Wayne Lordan found a sliver of an opening with a half-furlong left to race. Neither jockey nor horse hesitated, and once through the narrow opening, Gordon Lord Byron fled the scene, bursting home a clear winner over Tropics and Jack Dexter.
