Saturday’s Queen Elizabeth II Stakes at Ascot was hit by the shocking news on Thursday that Canford Cliffs, the favorite for the Group 1, $391,000 mile, would miss the race after having scoped badly. That leaves Makfi as Ladbrokes’s new 4-5 favorite with defending titleholder Rip Van Winkle the second choice at 5-2.
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DRF Past Performances
Ireland’s leading juvenile, Pathfork is headed to the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile. The winner of the seven-furlong, Group 1 Vincent O’Brien National Stakes at the Curragh on Sept. 11, the unbeaten son of Distorted Humor will make his first start on dirt at Churchill Downs on Nov. 6 for his trainer, Jessica Harrington, for whom he has also won the Curragh’s seven-furlong Group 2 Futurity Stakes.
Ascot will be the scene of three Breeders’ Cup Challenge races on Saturday when the winners of the Queen Elizabeth II Stakes (BC Mile), Fillies Mile (Juvenile Fillies Turf) and Royal Lodge Stakes (Juvenile Turf) will all earn automatic berths at Churchill Downs on Nov. 5 and 6.
Half-siblings to Goldikova and Bago were both successful in their maiden debuts at Longchamp on Saturday, on a day when Godolphin landed both Group 3 races on the card with French Navy and Prince Bishop.
Galikova, a Galileo half-sister to 10-time Group 1 winner Goldikova, had no trouble taking the one-mile Prix de la Cascade for unraced juvenile fillies as she cruised to a 1 1/2-length victory over Shmardanse, herself a half-sister to Group 3 winner Varevees. Warm Hands, a half-sister to Sheepshead Bay winner Treat Gently, came home fourth.
Dangerous Midge, the 9-2 winner of the Group 3, $88,000 Arc Trial at Newbury on Friday, won’t be running in the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe, but he is under consideration for the Breeders’ Cup Turf.
A Lion Heart colt, Dangerous Midge cruised clear under Martin Dwyer for a four-length victory over the 8-11 favorite, Rainbow Peak, as the Godolphin-owned Campanologist, saddled with a seven-pound penalty for two recent Group 1 scores in Germany, was an unthreatening third, two lengths behind the runner-up. The time for the 1 3/8 miles on good ground was a very slow 2:19.45.
The Japanese Breeders’ Cup Filly & Mare Turf hopeful Red Desire arrived at Aqueduct on Thursday to prepare for the Flower Bowl Invitational at Belmont Park on Oct. 2. Trained by Mikio Matsunaga, the 4-year-old daughter of the Sunday Silence stallion Manhattan Cafe will spend two days in quarantine at the Big A before transferring to Belmont on Saturday.
The Group 3, $88,000 Arc Trial, the Arc prep that rarely produces a runner in the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe, will have its 14th running at Newbury on Friday.
Only one of the race’s winners has ever run in the Arc in the same year he has won the Trial, that being Fantastic Light, who finished 11th behind Montjeu in 1999. The best Arc finish by an Arc Trial participant came in its inaugural running of 1997 when third-place Swain was seventh in the Arc behind Peintre Celebre.
Midday won the Group 1, $445,000 Prix Vermeille at Longchamp on Sunday as her arch-rival Sariska refused to race for the second time in a row and was retired immediately after the race.
The dramatic events surrounding the highlight of Arc Trial Day saw Midday win at the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe distance of 1 1/2 miles for the second time, but trainer Henry Cecil said afterwards that she would bypass the Arc and go directly to Churchill Downs for a defense of her title in the Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Turf, which will be run at 1 3/8 miles this year.