The ultra-consistent gelding Mr Brightside will be the odds-on favorite to become the first horse to win consecutive runnings of the All-Star Mile at Caulfield Racecourse in Melbourne, Australia, on Friday evening.
Mr Brightside, a winner of 16 of 31 starts, won the 2023 All-Star Mile when the race was run at Moonee Valley in Melbourne and had a purse of $3.32 million.
In the last two years, the French-bred gelding Protektorat finished third and fifth in the Grade 1 Cheltenham Gold Cup at 3 5/16 miles at Cheltenham Racecourse in Britain, jump racing’s premier weight-for-age race.
It turns out Protektorat is certainly a Grade 1 horse, just not at that distance. On Thursday at Cheltenham, Protektorat won the most prestigious race of his seven-year career in the Grade 1 Ryanair Chase at about 2 1/2 miles.
A 9-year-old, Protektorat is co-owned by Alex Ferguson, the former manager of Manchester United.
Third or fourth in three Group 1 races since late September, Tutta La Vita will race against an easier field in Thursday’s Group 3 Kembla Grange Classic for Southern Hemipshere 3-year-old fillies at Kembla Grange Racecourse in Australia on Thursday evening.
Recent history, both this week and in recent years, suits the chances of Galopin Des Champs in Friday’s Grade 1 Cheltenham Gold Cup at Cheltenham Racecourse in Britain.
The $799,900 Gold Cup, run at 3 5/16 miles over 22 fences, is the leading weight-for-age race in jump racing, and compares well to the Breeders’ Cup Classic in terms of prestige.
Galopin Des Champs, an 8-year-old gelding trained in Ireland by Willie Mullins, won the 2023 Gold Cup, and has won his two starts since Christmas in a manner that suggests he is capable of a dominant performance on Friday.
By Leo Schlink
Ellis Wong celebrated a significant milestone in his fledgling career at Happy Valley on Wednesday night (13 March) when the apprentice exploited his 10lb claim to maximum effect with a double on Happy Horse and Moments in Time.
Wong, 23, made the most of his opportunities by striking in tandem with Manfred Man when Happy Horse prevailed in the Class 5 Ap Lei Chau Handicap (1000m) before sealing his first double when Chilean Group 1 winner Moments In Time swept to victory in the Class 3 Peng Chau Handicap (1800m).
Banbridge, the 8-year-old gelding who starts in Thursday’s Grade 1 Ryanair Chase at Cheltenham Racecourse in Britain, represents the lower profile side of Irish trainer Joseph O’Brien’s stable, at least in the eyes of many American racing fans.
O’Brien, who has won such races as the 2018 Irish Derby, the Melbourne Cup twice, and the Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Turf with Iridessa at Santa Anita in 2019, also has a successful jump racing division.
By Declan Schuster
Tomodachi Kokoroe (128lb) has been one of this season’s best improvers and he’s aiming to join a select club when he shoots for a fifth win this season in Wednesday night’s (13 March) Class 2 Soko Islands Handicap (1200m) at Happy Valley.
Only two horses have won five races or more this term, I Give (six) and Happy Together (five), while Tomodachi Kokoroe has been a revelation for trainer David Hayes, netting his quartet across the past seven starts.
Paul Lally:
R1 3-2-10-9
R2 3-1-4-2
R3 7-5-11-8
R4 3-1-8-9
R5 8-1-5-2
R6 1-3-8-2
R7 6-4-5-1
R8 2-7-4-10
R9 9-8-4-7
Best Bet R4 N3 Copartner Prance
Longshot R8 N2 Moments In Time
Plays R5 1-5-8
Mark McNamara:
R1 – 2.4.10.5
R2 – 3.1.4.5
R3 – 11.5.3.6
R4 – 3.1.9.8
R5 – 2.8.4.10
R6 – 1.2.3.6
R7 – 9.5.4.8
R8 – 7.4.10.9
R9 – 8.9.2.4
Saudi Cup winner Senor Buscador and runner-up Ushba Tesoro top 13 horses announced Monday by the Dubai Racing Club as likely runners in the $12 million Dubai World Cup on March 30.
Senor Buscador beat Ushba Tesoro by a head in the Saudi Cup, a 1 1/8-mile race around one turn, but Ushba Tesoro is the defending champion in the two-turn, 1 1/4-mile Dubai World Cup, having captured the 2023 renewal by 2 3/4 lengths.
Senor Buscador is one of four American-based horses among the projected runners along with Newgate, Newgrange, and Crupi.
By the end of Wednesday’s seven-race program at Cheltenham Racecourse in Britain, Irish trainer Willie Mullins may have reached 100 career wins at the track’s prestigious National Hunt festival, or be ominously close to being the first person to do so.
Mullins has odds-on favorites in three of the four Grade 1 races on Wednesday, a program as much about the future as the present. On Tuesday, the first of four consecutive days of racing at the Cheltenham festival, Mullins has two odds-on favorites in Grade 1 races, and expected favorites in three of the other five races.
