Casamento, the 2-1 favorite, was an impressive winner of the Racing Post Trophy at Doncaster on Saturday. Ridden by Frankie Dettori, he powered to a three-quarter-length victory over the Aidan O'Brien-trained Seville. For Casamento's trainer, Michael Halford, it was his first Group 1 success.
Master of Hounds, a further two lengths away in third was also from O'Brien's Ballydoyle yard, giving Ireland a clean sweep in this the final Group 1 in England this season.
International Racing Bureau
It looks as though the Irish angle will be crucial in Saturday’s Racing Post Trophy at Doncaster, the final Group 1 event of the British season.
The mile event for 2-year-old colts and fillies has attracted 10 runners, with the Irish-trained pair of Casamento and Dunboyne Express looking the strongest.
Triple Group 1 winner Rip Van Winkle has been retired to Coolmore Stud after what trainer Aiden O'Brien told Racing Post is "a very slight setback."
O'Brien apparently did not detail the colt's issue but said that "it would have meant forcing him to get him to Churchill Downs" for the Breeders' Cup, where Rip Van Winkle was nominated for both the Breeders' Cup Mile and the Classic.
A 4-year-old by Galileo, he will now join his sire at Coolmore.
A final decision on the Breeders’ Cup Turf status of Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe winner Workforce will not be made until Saturday at the earliest after trainer Michael Stoute has seen the 3-year-old son of King’s Best work at Newmarket.
The Dubai Racing Club announced on Tuesday that the distance of the Al Quoz Sprint, a Group 2 turf race run on Dubai World Cup Night, has been shortened from six furlongs to five furlongs.
The race was run on World Cup Night for the first time this past March when it was won by the Hong Kong-trained Joy and Fun with Godolphin’s Fravashi second and the Brian Koriner-trained California Flag third.
Apapane and Saint Emilion had finished in a dead heat the last time they met in the Japanese Oaks on May 21, but it was a different story at Kyoto on Sunday as Apapane beat her rival into last place in the Grade 1, $2.1 million Shuka Sho. Sent off as the 1.30-1 favorite and ridden by Masayoshi Ebina, Apapane rallied from 11th place to lead just inside the eighth pole for a three-quarter-length victory over Animate Bio. Her time for the 1 1/4 miles on firm ground was 1:58.40.
Twice Over got first run on Vision d’Etat as the enterprising tactics employed by Tom Queally gave the winning 4-year-old son of Observatory his second successive victory in the Group 1, $602,000 Champion Stakes, the last that will be run over Newmarket’s straight 10 furlongs.
Twice Over’s victory also capped a famous double for his owner Khalid Abdullah and his trainer Henry Cecil, as well as for Queally, the trio having combined to produce Dewhurst Stakes winner Frankel 45 minutes earlier.
Frankel enhanced his tall reputation at Newmarket on Saturday with an impressive score in the Group 1, $507,000 Dewhurst Stakes, maintaining his perfect record while handing the disappointing Dream Ahead and Saamidd their first defeats.
Fame and Glory may bypass the Breeders’ Cup Turf, Aidan O’Brien revealed on Friday. CIting the “hard race” the 4-year-old son of Montjeu had in finishing fifth in the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe on Oct. 3, O’Brien said it was “quite possible” that Fame and Glory, winner of the Coronation Cup and Tattersalls Gold Cup, would not travel to Churchill Downs, but that there is a chance that he would remain in training next year.
The Champions Day card at Newmarket on Saturday will be highlighted not by the prestigious Champion Stakes, but by Britain’s definitive juvenile contest, the $504,000 Dewhurst Stakes, a seven-furlong Group 1 featuring a clash between Frankel and Dream Ahead.