Dark Saffron, a 3-year-old and the third-longest shot in a field of 11, led throughout Saturday’s Group 1 Golden Shaheen for sprinters at Meydan Racecourse in Dubai to win his first stakes against a top-class field.
Straight No Chaser, who won the Eclipse Award as the champion sprinter of 2024, could only finish eighth, beaten nine lengths as the even-money favorite in American pools.
Stefi Magnetica ended a six-race losing streak since June with an upset victory in Saturday’s Group 1 Doncaster Mile at Royal Randwick Racecourse in Sydney, Australia, beating a field of 19 that included Moira, who won the Eclipse Award winner as the champion turf female of 2024.
Moira had her first start in the Australia in the $2.51 Doncaster Mile, and first start since a win in the Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Turf at Del Mar last November. Moira finished 14th in the Doncaster Mile, beaten slightly less than five lengths, after racing in 12th early.
Admire Daytona earned a trip to the $5 million Kentucky Derby at Churchill Downs on May 3 with an upset win in Saturday’s Grade 2 United Arab Emirates Derby at Meydan Racecourse in Dubai.
Admire Daytona was not nominated to the American Triple Crown earlier this year, but trainer Yukihiro Kato told Meydan publicity that the colt would be sent to Kentucky.
Admire Daytona can be nominated for $6,000 on Monday.
Doug O’Neill has raced more than any American trainer in Dubai, even, for a couple seasons, sending a string of runners to run at Meydan during the winter. O’Neill knows what it takes to win on the Dubai World Cup card, and after pointing Raging Torrent for months to the Godolphin Mile, O’Neill hit a bullseye on Saturday. Going straight to the lead under Frankie Dettori, Raging Torrent swatted away his pace rival, American expat Mufasa, and never came close to facing a homestretch challenge, winning the Group 2, $1 million Godolphin Mile by 3 1/2 lengths.
A poor recent race record aside, I Am Maximus will be favored to win Saturday’s famous Grand National steeplechase at Aintree Racecourse near Liverpool, England, for the second consecutive year.
In 2024, I Am Maximus was a co-favorite at 7-1, winning the grueling race at about 4 1/4 miles over 30 fences by 7 1/2 lengths.
In preparation for this year’s race, I Am Maximus was always going to have a light campaign directed by his famous trainer, Willie Mullins, the leading jumps trainer in Ireland.
Paul Lally:
R1 5-4-1-3
R2 3-7-9-8
R3 8-5-9-2
R4 8-6-2-4
R5 8-6-2-10
R6 7-1-12-8
R7 5-4-9-1
R8 4-7-5-1
R9 8-7-11-3
Best Bet R8 N4 Definitive
Value Play R9 N8 Find My Love
Play R4 QQP 2-6-8
Tom Wood:
R1: 2-1-3-10
R2: 9-5-1-2
R3: 8-9-10-2
R5: 6-2-5-10
By Declan Schuster
Andrea Atzeni has rocketed into third place in the 2024/25 Hong Kong jockeys’ championship and the Italian ace is aiming to continue a prosperous stretch of form when he takes seven rides at Happy Valley tomorrow night (Wednesday, 2 April).
The 34-year-old rode 10 winners through March from 51 pairings to lift his score to 36 behind only Zac Purton (87 wins) and Hugh Bowman (51). Brenton Avdulla (34) and Luke Ferraris (33) are the only other riders to surpass the 30-win mark this season.
by Leo Schlink
Delivering a chilling reminder of his extraordinary talent, Ka Ying Rising posted his 11th consecutive victory with a blistering display in the HK$5.35 million G2 Sprint Cup (1200m) to crown Zac Purton’s return to race riding at Sha Tin on Sunday (30 March).
The world’s highest-rated sprinter, Ka Ying Rising (128lb) demolished his opposition with familiar nonchalance to score by three lengths from Helios Express (123lb) and Lucky With You (123lb) in 1m 08.18s after being eased down by Purton with 100m to go.
