Aidan O’Brien will have as many as four runners – including Kentucky Derby last-place finisher Daddy Long Legs – in the Irish 2000 Guineas on Saturday at The Curragh, but the O’Brien quartet doesn’t include the race’s ante-post betting favorite, Parish Hall.
Gold Ship, the winner of the Japanese 2000 Guineas, has a tough act to follow in Sunday’s $3.9 million Japanese Derby at Tokyo Racecourse.
The 2011 winner of the Japanese 2000 Guineas, Orfevre, went on to win the Japanese Derby and the Japanese Triple Crown.
The 2000 Guineas, Japanese Derby, and Japanese St. Leger form the Japanese Triple Crown.
I’ll Have Another is not the only 3-year-old in the world with a chance to win a Triple Crown.
The Japanese filly Gentildonna has won the first two stakes in that country’s lucrative series for 3-year-old fillies. Sunday at Tokyo Racecourse, Gentildonna won the $2.52 million Japanese Oaks by five lengths in stakes-record time.
Gentildonna won the first leg of the filly Triple Crown in the Japanese 1000 Guineas at Hanshin Racecourse on April 8. The third and final race in the series is the Group 1 Shuka Sho over about 1 1/4 miles on turf at Kyoto Racecourse on Oct. 14.
Frankel, the unbeaten European superstar, is expected to make his next start in the Group 1 Queen Anne Stakes at Royal Ascot in England on June 19, trainer Henry Cecil announced on his website on Sunday.
The 4-year-old Frankel won his 2012 debut in Saturday’s Group 1 Lockinge Stakes at Newbury Racecourse in England by five lengths.
Frankel is unbeaten in 10 starts.
The Queen Anne Stakes is the top race for older milers at the Royal Ascot meeting.
Feuerblitz, a German-bred colt by Big Shuffle, won the first stakes of his career in Sunday’s Group 2 Italian Derby at Capannelle Racecourse.
Real Solution, bred and owners by Americans Ken and Sarah Ramsey, could only finish sixth as the favorite in the field of 11, the first loss of his four-race career.
When an elite racehorse suffers any kind of injury, one immediately wonders if he has raced for the last time, a situation doubly true when a horse has never lost. So, when news came that Frankel had rapped the tendon on a foreleg while training in April toward his 2012 debut, it was fair to consider the chance the colt would never start again.
But 4-year-old Frankel has made it back, and from the look of the J.T. Lockinge Stakes on Saturday at Newbury in England, he is just as good as ever.
Real Solution, an undefeated colt owned by American breeders Ken and Sarah Ramsey, risks a three-race unbeaten streak in Sunday’s Group 2 Italian Derby at Capannelle Racecourse.
Real Solution, a Pennsylvania-bred by Kitten’s Joy, will be ridden for the first time by Frankie Dettori in the Italian Derby, which is run over a mile and three furlongs.
Frankel, easily the top-rated horse in the International Federation of Horseracing Authorities World Thoroughbred Rankings, makes his 4-year-old debut Saturday at Newbury in the Group 1 J.T. Lockinge Stakes, with no more than six foes set to oppose him.
Undefeated two-time champion Frankel remains on track to make his 4-year-old debut on Saturday at Newbury in the J.T. Lockinge Stakes.
Final entries for the Group 1 Lockinge will be determined Thursday, but Frankel will have no more than eight rivals, since only nine horses were left in the Lockinge at the race’s most recent entry stage.
