The Group 1, $345,000 Criterium de Saint-Cloud at 1 1/4 miles on Saturday will feature the first three home from the 1 1/8-mile, Group 3 Prix de Conde, but there is much more to this, the world’s longest juvenile group race, which has drawn a competitive field of 11 without a standout.
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DRF Past Performances
Roger Attfield reports from Kyoto Racecourse that his Flower Bowl Invitational winner Ave is on course for her Sunday assignment in the $2.3 million Queen Elizabeth II Commemorative Cup. After watching her gallop around the right-handed turf course Thursday, the Woodbine-based Englishman pronounced himself pleased with her condition.
“She is eating well, and I was quite happy with what I saw this morning,” he said. “She is also keeping her weight well, gaining nine pounds since we weighed her last time.”
Jockey Johnny Murtagh resigned as contract rider for the Irish-based Ballydoyle on Monday. A statement released by Eddie Byrne, the agent for the 40-year-old Irish rider, read, "Johnny Murtagh has spoken to John Magnier, Derrick Smith, Michael Tabor, and Aidan O’Brien today and informed them that he will not be renewing his contract to ride as stable jockey to Coolmore/Ballydoyle next season, 2011."
Red-eyed after his victory aboard Dangerous Midge in Saturday’s Breeders’ Cup Turf, Frankie Dettori arrived in Rome on Sunday just in time to pilot Rio de la Plata to victory in the Group 1, $337,000 Premio Roma at the Capannelle. The win was Dettori’s 100th Group 1 or Grade 1 victory for Godolphin, his first having come aboard Balanchine in the 1994 English Oaks.
Richard Hannon will watch his two Breeders’ Cup runners, Tale Untold in the Juvenile Fillies Turf on Friday, and Paco Boy in the Mile on Saturday, from a bed at Southampton Hospital in England. The 66-year-old trainer underwent bypass surgery earlier this week and is reported by his wife, Jo, to be resting comfortably.
“Everything went well,” Jo Hannon said on Richard Hannon Racing’s website on Friday. “Having been restricted to sitting in a chair for the last couple of days, he hopes to be able to leave intensive care today and move into his own room.”
Julien Leparoux has been named to represent the United States in the Cathay Pacific International Jockeys’ Championship at Happy Valley Racecourse in Hong Kong on Dec. 8. The 27-year-old Frenchman, winner of an Eclipse Award as America’s leading jockey in 2009 when he rode 240 winners for earnings of $18,560,565, and as America’s leading apprentice rider in 2006 when he rode 403 winners, also won the Shoemaker Award as the leading rider at last year’s Breeders’ Cup.
A revivified Rio de la Plata seeks his second straight Italian Group 1 title at the Capannelle in Rome on Sunday in the 1 1/4-mile, $422,000 Premio Roma. Frankie Dettori, flying directly from his Breeders’ Cup assignments at Churchill Downs, will ride the Rahy 5-year-old, who is coming off a victory in the one-mile, Group 1 Premio Vittorio di Capua in Milan.
World championship honors may be at stake at Churchill Downs on Saturday, but whether the horse acceding to that level is Zenyatta, Goldikova, or Workforce is difficult to say. After the dust clears at about 6:50 p.m. Eastern, they may all still be chasing Harbinger, whose 11-length cakewalk in the King George VI and Queen Elizabeth Stakes at Ascot on July 24 remains the best performance of the year.
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Alan Shuback's Friday BC analysis | Saturday BC analysis
Queen Anne Stakes
June 15, 2010 - Royal Ascot