Perfect in two starts this year, Colour Vision, the winner of the Ascot Gold Cup in June, may go favored in Thursday’s Group 2 Goodwood Cup at Goodwood Racecourse in southern England.
Trained by Saeed bin Suroor for Godolpin Racing, Colour Vision ran primarily in minor stakes and handicaps last year, but has been much improved this season. He won the Sagaro Stakes at Kempton Park on May 2.
It was in the 2011 Sussex Stakes that Frankel was supposed to face his greatest challenge. Frankel was 3 then, and the older horse Canford Cliffs was in royal form, having just comfortably beaten Goldikova. But that showdown turned into a letdown, as Frankel dashed away from Canford Cliffs like a deer racing a woodchuck, winning by five lengths and sending Canford Cliffs into retirement.
A similar result will be widely anticipated Wednesday at Goodwood in the 2012 Sussex, where Frankel will be overwhelmingly favored to defeat just three foes.
Elusive Kate is based in England with trainer John Gosden, but the filly loves racing in France. She travelled to Deauville for the Group 1 Prix Rothschild on Sunday and led all the way, running her French record to 4 for 4 while winning for the third time in as many starts on the Deauville course.
Chachamaidee, a 5-year-old mare who was second in the Group 2 Windsor Forest Stakes at Royal Ascot in June, can win the most prestigious race of her career in Tuesday’s Group 2 Lennox Stakes at Goodwood Racecourse in England.
Tuesday’s program is the first day of the track’s famous five-day Glorious Goodwood summer meeting. The focus of the week will be Frankel’s appearance in Wednesday’s Group 1 Sussex Stakes over a mile, a race he won in 2011. Frankel is unbeaten in 11 starts.
Chachamaidee is trained by Sir Henry Cecil, who also trains Frankel.
The high-class French filly Golden Lilac skipped the Group 1 Prince of Wales’s Stakes in June at Royal Ascot because of a wet, testing course, but that’s the kind of going she found anyway in the race her connections chose as an alternative, the Falmouth Stakes on July 13 at Newmarket. Golden Lilac struggled home ninth of 10 there but should find conditions that better suit her Sunday at Deauville, where Golden Lilac is part of a select field of five in the Group 1 Prix Rothschild.
Afsare, a winner at the 2010 Royal Ascot meeting, can win his second consecutive stakes – and first at the group level – in Saturday’s Group 2 York Stakes at York Racecourse in northern England.
Trained by Luca Cumani, Afsare has been in excellent form. A 5-year-old gelding by Dubawi, Afsare was second in the Group 1 Premio Presidente della Rebubblica in Italy in May and won the Gala Stakes at Sandown Park in England as the favorite on July 6. Both races were over 1 1/4 miles on turf.
The York Stakes, which drew a field of 11, is run over about 1 5/16 miles.
A day after Nathaniel finished a game second to Danedream by a nose in the Group 1 King George VI and Queen Elizabeth Stakes at Ascot, Great Heavens, Nathaniel’s full sister, won her fourth consecutive race in the Group 1 Darley Irish Oaks at the Curragh. William Buick, who turned 24 on Sunday, rode both for trainer John Gosden.
The German filly Danedream’s first longshot victory in a major European race, the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe last fall, came in a romp, but her second, on Saturday at Ascot in the Group 1 King George VI and Queen Elizabeth Stakes, came down to a head bob, with Danedream beating the race’s gallant 2011 winner Nathaniel by a nose.
Great Heavens and Princess Highway, 3-year-old fillies who have won their last three starts, are the top contenders in Sunday’s Group 1 Irish Oaks at the Curragh.
Great Heavens could be the latest raiding success in Ireland for British trainer John Gosden. Earlier this month, he won the Group 1 Pretty Polly Stakes in Ireland with Izzi Top.
Great Heavens, by Galileo, won her group stakes debut in the Group 2 Lancashire Oaks at Haydock Park in England on July 7. The Irish Oaks will be her first start outside of England.
