Treasure Beach, Carlton House, and Memphis Tennessee, respectively the second, third, and fourth-place finishers in the English Derby, renew their rivalry Sunday at The Curragh in the Group 1 Irish Derby. Treasure Beach and Memphis Tennessee are trained by Aidan O’Brien, who also has Roderic O’Connor and Seville in the eight-horse field. With half the runners, O’Brien figures to have a solid chance of landing his sixth straight victory in the 1 1/2-mile Derby.
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DRF Past Performances
Buena Vista, Japan’s Horse of the Year for the last two seasons, will be favored in Sunday’s Group 1 Takarazuka Kinen at Hanshin Racecourse, a race that offers an automatic berth to the winner to the Breeders’ Cup Turf at Churchill Downs in November.
In 2010, Snow Fairy won four Group 1 races in four countries on two continents. How much she can accomplish this year will be better known on Saturday when Snow Fairy makes her 4-year-old debut in the Group 1 Pretty Polly Stakes for fillies and mares at the Curragh in Ireland.
Run over 1 1/4 miles, the Pretty Polly Stakes is part of the Breeders’ Cup Challenge program, offering an automatic berth for the winner to the BC Filly and Mare Turf at Churchill Downs in November.
Society’s Rock, second in the race last year, scored an upset in the Group 1 Golden Jubilee on Saturday, the final day of the 2011 Royal Ascot meeting, but it was Group 2 Hardwicke Stakes winner Await the Dawn whom American racing fans may want to follow.
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The French invader Immortal Verse rallied from last in a field of 12 to win the first Group 1 race of her career in Friday’s Coronation Stakes at Royal Ascot, the meeting’s premier race for 3-year-old fillies.
Delegator is the best-known horse and possible favorite for the Group 1 Golden Jubilee on Saturday at Royal Ascot, but his credentials for the five-furlong dash hardly are impeccable. Delegator has been a miler for most of his career, and the change in course conditions late this week, from good-firm to good-soft, might not be to his advantage, either.
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The question was whether Fame and Glory, the most talented horse in the Ascot Gold Cup, could stay the race’s demanding 2 1/2-mile distance. The answer was a resounding yes, as Fame and Glory captured the Group 1 Gold Cup by three lengths under Jamie Spencer. Opinion Poll finished second, Brigantin third, and Manighar fourth.
Trainer Richard Hannon sent out Strong Suit to win the Group 3 Jersey Stakes for 3-year-olds at seven furlongs in the first race at Royal Ascot on Wednesday, but there was bigger news from the Hannon camp, with a trip to the Breeders’ Cup Mile at Churchill now considered a strong option for Canford Cliffs, who won the Group 1 Queen Anne Stakes on Tuesday and ranks as Europe’s top miler.
More Than Real, the winner of the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies Turf at Churchill Downs last fall, faces a formidable task when she makes her 2011 debut in Friday’s Group 1 Coronation Stakes at Royal Ascot in England.
The premier race of the Royal Ascot meeting for 3-year-old fillies will also be More Than Real’s first start outside of North America.