Blue Bunting’s strong late rally carried her to a three-quarters length victory over Together in the Group 1 Quipco 1000 Guineas on Sunday at Newmarket, England. The performance made the Godolphin-owned Blue Bunting into one of the favorites for the English Oaks, and gave second-year trainer Mahmood al Zarooni his first victory in an English classic race.
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DRF Past Performances
Ambitious Dragon capped an ambitious and successful Hong Kong season with a comfortable victory Sunday at Sha Tin in the Group 1, $1.8 million Audemars Piguet Queen Elizabeth II Cup. Away slowly under jockey Douglas Whyte, Ambitious Dragon was 10th along the fence with a half-mile to run in the 2,000-meter race, but Whyte guided Ambitious Dragon outside and between horses before the final 400 meters, and Ambitious Dragon, the 2.3-1 favorite, accelerated strongly to win by three-quarters of a length over fast-finishing California Memory.
Two years after he became the first American trainer to saddle a winner at Royal Ascot, Wesley Ward is bound for the royal meeting again in June, and is taking a unique path to get there.
Saturday, Ward saddled Tiz Terrific to win a maiden turf race for 2-year-olds over about five furlongs at Longchamp in Paris, the trainer’s first winner in France.
The brilliance, and long-term promise, of Frankel was fully displayed at Newmarket on Saturday when the undefeated colt easily won the English 2000 Guineas, his sixth career win.
Ridden by Tom Queally for trainer Henry Cecil, Frankel took the lead shortly after the start of the one-mile race and opened a sizeable advantage midway through the race. The lead diminished in the final furlong, through an uphill finish, but Frankel still won by a comfortable six lengths.
Frankel seemed to be in his own race throughout the first classic of the British season.
Hours after Prince William married Kate Middleton in central London in a royal wedding that grabbed worldwide attention, a 9-year-old gelding named Royal Wedding won a handicap steeplechase at Fontwell Park in southern England.
Despite an awkward jump two fences from the finish, Royal Wedding won the two-mile, six-furlong Crabbie's Alcoholic Ginger Beer Handicap Chase by 12 lengths, returning odds of 4-1. His price drifted from as low as 7-2 to as high as 5-1 in the minutes before the race.
The 8-year-old mare River Jetez may be in the best form of her career, having finished second by less than a length to Presvis in the Dubai Duty Free Stakes on March 26. A length and a half and one place behind her that night came Wigmore Hall, who had the worst racing luck of any horse in the Duty Free. Both horses rate a decent chance in the Queen Elizabeth II Cup on Sunday at Sha Tin in Hong Kong, but local talent Ambitious Dragon, flattered by the result of the Champions Mile last week at Sha Tin, might prove to be a handful.
Frankel may be the shortest-priced favorite in more than 35 years when he starts in Saturday’s 2000 Guineas at Newmarket, England.
Apalachee was 4-9 when he finished third in 1974, four years after Nijinsky won at odds of 4-7. As of Thursday, Frankel was available with British bookmakers at odds as short of 4-9 to remain unbeaten in his sixth start.
A win would confirm Frankel’s status as one of the most exceptional 3-year-old milers in England in recent years, and set the tone for the rest of the 2011 European season.
Orfevre won his second consecutive stakes in the Japanese 2000 Guineas at Tokyo Racecourse on Sunday, weaving his way through traffic in early stretch to win the $2.3 million race by three lengths.
Ridden by Kenichi Ikezoe for trainer Yasutoshi Ikee, Orfevre, a 10-1 shot, outfinished Sadamu Patek, the 5-2 favorite in the field of 18. Danon Ballade finished third.