Secret Gesture, a maiden race winner in her final start of 2012, can solidify her status as a contender for the Group 1 English Oaks on May 31 when she makes her first start of 2013 in Saturday’s Betfred Oaks Trial Stakes at Lingfield Racecourse, near London.
Secret Gesture was listed at 14-1 for the English Oaks in the future book with British bookmakers earlier this week. The favorite, at 7-2, was Moth, who was a troubled third in the English 1000 Guineas last Sunday.
Verxina, second in the Grade 1 Japanese Oaks in 2012, will be favored to win the first Grade 1 of her career in Sunday’s $1,908,722 Victoria Mile for fillies and mares on turf at Tokyo Racecourse.
A 4-year-old filly by Deep Impact trained by Yasuo Tomomichi, Verxina was second to 2012 Japanese Horse of the Year Gentildonna in three consecutive stakes last year, including the Japanese Oaks.
Godolphin plans to have longtime trainer Saeed bin Suroor take over the Newmarket training yard of suspended trainer Mahmood al Zarooni, but the British Horseracing Authority, which suspended al Zarooni eight years for administering anabolic steroid to horses he trained, said bin Suroor would not be granted a license to train at the yard until all Godolphin horses in Newmarket tested negative for steroids.
A month after the retirement of unbeaten superstar Black Caviar, the Australian sprint division carries on with two Group 1 races Saturday.
Black Caviar, who won 25 sprints, won the Group 1 Goodwood Stakes in 2012. In Saturday’s $510,000 Goodwood at Morphettville Racecourse, her trainer, Peter Moody, starts Moment Of Change, a 5-year-old gelding who carries the top weight of 129 pounds in the 18-runner field.
With the June 1 Epsom Derby less than a month away, the race remains cloaked in uncertainty, and the handful of Derby prep races still to be run – like Thursday’s Chester Vase – could clear up the picture at the top of the 3-year-old division.
Sky Lantern, who finished eighth in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies at Santa Anita last November, gave British champion jockey Richard Hughes his first British classic win in Sunday’s $620,000 English 1000 Guineas at Newmarket Racecourse in England.
Dawn Approach began his 3-year-old season Saturday at Newmarket in the Group 1 English 2000 Guineas the same way he blasted through his 2-year-old campaign, looking like a dominant member of his generation. Dawn Approach was pitted for the first time against Toronado, another unbeaten colt, but Toronado fizzled, coming home meekly for fourth as Dawn Approach ran his record to 7 for 7 with a five-length victory over longshot Glory Awaits.
Escado, a 13-1 outsider, rallied on the inside in the stretch to score an upset win in Saturday’s $520,000 South Australian Derby at Morphettville Racecourse, the first Group 1 win for the gelding.
Ridden by Ben Melham, Escado, who is by Casino Prince, won the South Australian Derby over 1 9/16 miles by 1 3/4 lengths over Hioctdane, a 9-2 chance. Shoreham, the 3-1 favorite, finished a nose behind Hioctdane in the field of 15 Southern Hemisphere 3-year-olds.
The unbeaten Hot Snap, the winner of the Group 3 Nell Gwyn Stakes last month, will be favored to win Sunday’s $620,000 English 1000 Guineas at Newmarket Racecourse and give trainer Henry Cecil his seventh career win in the one-mile classic for 3-year-old fillies.
The race is being run for the 200th time on Sunday.
Hot Snap, owned by breeder Khalid Abdullah, is part of a field of 15 in the Group 1 1000 Guineas, run over a straightaway mile. She will make her third start on Sunday, having won a maiden race at Kempton Park last September.