Hunter’s Light, the winner of a Group 1 turf race in Italy in November, won his first start of 2013 in Thursday’s $250,000 Round Two of the Maktoum Challenge at Meydan Racecourse, joining the list of candidates for the $10 million Dubai World Cup on March 30.
Alpha, who finished in a dead heat for first in the Travers Stakes at Saratoga last summer, was last of 12 in his first start of 2013. Alpha was last of 12 in the Breeders’ Cup Classic at Santa Anita in November.
All Too Hard, a 4-year-old half-brother to the unbeaten sprinter Black Caviar, makes his first start since October in Saturday’s Group 1 C.F. Orr Stakes at Caulfield Racecourse in Australia.
The $412,000 Orr Stakes is run over seven furlongs and is the first Group 1 race of 2013 in Australia.
All Too Hard won the Group 1 Caulfield Guineas and was second in the Cox Plate last October. A three-time stakes winner, All Too Hard, who is by Casino Prince, is considered a candidate for the Group 1 Queen Anne Stakes at Royal Ascot in England in June.
Rock On Ruby, winner of the 2012 Champion Hurdle at Cheltenham, won Monday’s 32Red Hurdle at Doncaster Racecourse in England, a two-mile race marred by a fatal injury suffered by even-money favorite Darlan at the eighth and final hurdle.
Rock On Ruby (13-8) won by three lengths over Countrywide Flame in a field of four.
The winner of the $200,000 Al Rashidiya Stakes on Thursday night at Meydan in Dubai probably is part of the Godolphin operation. The question – as so often is the case at the Winter Carnival – is which Godolphin runner is the right one.
There are three in Al Rashidiya, a turf race over about 1 1/8 miles, with Sharestan and Aesop’s Fables being the principal combatants. The former has strong recent form to recommend him, the latter a Group 1 win in France earlier this year.
Former British jockey Andrew Heffernan was suspended for 15 years after being found guilty on corruption charges, the British Horse Racing Authority announced Friday.
Heffernan and eight other people were suspended from periods ranging from 3 to 15 years for “conspiring with others to commit a corrupt and fraudulent practice.” Heffernan was cited for corruption and for failing to allow a horse to run on its merits, penalties with concurrent 15-year suspensions.
Sajjhaa ended a four-race losing streak, and won for the first time outside of Europe, in Thursday’s $200,000 Cape Verdi Stakes for fillies and mares on turf at Meydan Racecourse in Dubai.
Ridden by Silvestre de Sousa for trainer Saeed Bin Suroor, Sajjhaa raced near the front throughout the Group 2 Cape Verdi Stakes over a mile. She took the lead with a quarter-mile remaining and won by 3 3/4 lengths over an unlucky Amanee, who raced in traffic in early stretch.
First City, who won the 2012 Cape Verdi, finished third in the field of eight.
Sajjhaa, a 6-year-old mare who won three stakes in Europe earlier in her career, can end a four-race losing streak in Thursday’s $200,000 Cape Verdi Stakes at Meydan Racecourse in Dubai.
Sajjhaa, owned by Godolphin Racing and trained by Saeed bin Suroor, is part of a field of eight in the Group 2 Cape Verdi Stakes, which is run over about a mile on turf for fillies and mares. The Cape Verdi is Sajjhaa’s first start since a second in the Gillies’ Fillies Stakes at Doncaster, England, in November.
Music Chart, a filly by Exchange Rate who sold for $230,000 at the 2011 Fasig-Tipton Saratoga yearling sale, won her stakes debut in Thursday’s United Arab Emirates 1000 Guineas Trial at Meydan Racecourse in Dubai.
Ridden by Mickael Barzalona for trainer Mahmood Al Zarooni, Music Chart closed from the back of the field of 10 3-year-old fillies to finish three-quarters of a length in front of Shuruq, an Elusive Quality filly bred in Kentucky.
