Beat Black, a 5-year-old who had never won a graded stakes, pulled a shocking upset in Sunday’s spring running of the $3.4 million Tenno Sho for older horses at Kyoto Racecourse in Japan, winning the Grade 1 race over about two miles by four lengths at the staggering odds of 158-1.
The victory was the first Grade 1 win for jockey Syu Ishibashi and the third career Grade 1 win for trainer Hitoshi Nakamura. He won his first Grade 1 race in 1984.
Iron horse Cirrus des Aigles began his 2012 European season the same way he ended a Cartier-award-winning 2011, with an impressive win in a Group 1 race.
Just four weeks after a game win in the Group 1 Sheema Classic in Dubai, Cirrus des Aigles scored a dominant front-running victory Sunday at Longchamp in Paris, taking the Group 1 Prix Ganay by eight lengths over the talented filly Giofra. Sunday’s blowout triumph showcased Cirrus des Aigles’s versatility: In Dubai, he won over 1 ½ miles on a firm course, while the Prix Ganay was contested over about 1 ¼ miles on soft going.
Racing over radically soft going, even by European standards, Imperial Monarch and Colombian scored Group 3 victories on Saturday at Sandown in England.
Three-year-old Imperial Monarch came from last to capture the Bet365 Classic for trainer Aidan O’Brien. He was ridden by O’Brien’s son, Joseph, who described the course as “bottomless” in places and found better going on the wide outside. Imperial Monarch could wind up in the Epsom Derby, but Aidan O’Brien already has the hot ante-post favorite for that race in Camelot.
Black Caviar needed minimal effort to extend her unbeaten streak to 20 races in Saturday’s Group 1 Sportingbet Classic at Morphettville Racecourse, near Adelaide, Australia.
The winning streak is a record for an Australian-based horse racing at that country’s major tracks. Two Australian horses have compiled 22-race winning streaks racing at minor venues.
With his old rival and defending champion Ambitious Dragon sitting out the Group 1 Queen Elizabeth II Cup on Sunday at Sha Tin in Hong Kong, it could be California Memory’s turn to step into the spotlight, but to do so, California Memory must rebound from a subpar performance March 31 in the Dubai Duty Free, where he finished 12th.
The Cirrus des Aigles that finished third one year ago in the Prix Ganay was not the Cirrus des Aigles that heads the 2012 edition of the Group 1 Ganay on Sunday at Longchamp. The horse of a year ago was a solid Group 2 gelding, apparently well set in the European hierarchy after three seasons of racing. But since that time, Cirrus des Aigles, now 6, has moved forward and taken a position at the very head of European middle-distance horses.
Goldoni won Wednesday’s Investec Derby Trial at Epsom Downs, but he will not be able to take advantage of the race’s automatic berth to the English Derby at the same course on June 2.
Goldoni is a gelding and the English Derby is restricted to colts and fillies.
In Wednesday’s race over about 1 /4 miles, Goldoni, a 15-2 chance, was always near the front and won by 1 1/4 lengths over Mister Music on a heavy turf course. Cameron Highland, the 9-4 favorite, finished third in the field of six.
Black Caviar will have nine rivals when she attempts to extend her unbeaten streak to 20 races in Saturday’s Group 1 Sportingbet Classic at Morphettville Racecourse in Australia.
Unraced since February, Black Caviar is expected to have two starts in Australia in coming weeks before traveling to England for the Diamond Jubilee Stakes at Royal Ascot on June 23. After Saturday’s race, Black Caviar is expected to start in the Group 1 Goodwood Stakes at Morphettville on May 12.