Bobby Frankel has decided to send Mast Track to Hanshin for the Dec. 7 Japan Cup Dirt after all. The Hollywood Gold Cup winner, trained and owned by Frankel, was scheduled to leave Los Angeles International Airport on Wednesday for the 1 1/8-mile Grade 1 contest, a day after the Rick Dutrow-trained Frost Giant left New York for the same race.
Those two will be joined in the $2 million Japan Cup Dirt by the New York-bred Tin Cup Chalice, who has been in Japan since last Thursday.
Rahy's Attorney will carry the hopes of Canada in Kyoto on Sunday when he will be the only foreign starter in Japan's Grade 1, $2 million Mile Championship.
Winner of the Woodbine Mile, Rahy's Attorney has drawn post 10 in a field of 10 in the one-turn, right-handed Mile Championship, which has a three-furlong run to the first turn with a 12-foot hill to climb at the three-quarters pole followed by a steep descent on the turn for home.
Regular rider Slade Callaghan was unconcerned about the relatively wide post drawn by Rahy's Attorney.
Marsh Side and Tin Cup Chalice have arrived in Japan to prepare for their dates in two of Japans most valuable races. Canadian International winner Marsh Side, who goes in the 1 1/2-mile Japan Cup on Nov. 30, checked into the Shiroi Quarantine Center east of Tokyo at 1:35 p.m. on Thursday (1:35 a.m. Eastern), while Tin Cup Chalice preceded him by about 45 minutes after a 24-hour journey from Finger Lakes in anticipation of his run in the 1 1/8-mile Japan Cup Dirt on Dec. 7.
Citing a depressed economic climate, the Irish Horseracing Board on Thursday announced across-the-board budget cuts to nearly all aspects of racing in the country.
The most immediate impact will be made with regard to prize money, which will be reduced to 56.5 million euros ($72.9 million) in 2009 from 60.7 million euros ($78.3 million) in 2008. The cuts come in the wake of the announcement last month that betting tax in Ireland would be doubled from 1 percent to 2 percent, while money allocated to purses by the government next year would be cut by 9.5 percent.
ew Zealand will add a second million-dollar race to its calendar on Feb. 28, when Telecom sponsors the $1.26 million New Zealand Derby at Ellerslie Racecourse. The Kelt Capital Stakes at Hastings Racecourse, worth $1.3 million this year, joined the ranks of million-dollar races in 2007.
Zarkava, the undefeated winner of the Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe, was named Cartier European Horse of the Year at the annual Cartier Awards dinner in London on Monday night.
A daughter of Zamindar trained by Alain de Royer-Dupre for her breeder/owner, the Aga Khan, Zarkava won three Group 1 races this season besides the Arc: the Prix Vermeille, the French Oaks and the French 1000 Guineas, triumphs that garnered her the 3-year-old filly title as well. Christophe Soumillon rode Zarkava in all seven of her career victories.
Viva Pataca cruised to a handy 1 1/4-length victory in the $387,000 International Cup Trial at Sha Tin on Sunday, establishing himself as the horse to beat in the Hong Kong Cup on Dec. 14.
The 3-10 favorite in a field of eight in the 1 1/4-mile Group 2 contest, Viva Pataca, trained by John Moore, never had an anxious moment under a patient ride from Darren Beadman and easily held off the hard-ridden Hawkes Bay for the victory. The winning time on good ground was 2:02.41.
Three American horses have accepted invitations to run in the reconfigured $2.8 million Japan Cup Dirt on Dec. 7, the Japan Racing Association announced on Friday. Tin Cup Chalice will be joined by Mast Track and Frost Giant in making the trip to Hanshin Racetrack near Osaka for what will be the world's second-richest race run on dirt this year, after the Dubai World Cup.
Rahy's Attorney, winner of the Woodbine Mile on Sept. 7, arrived in Japan on Tuesday to prepare for the $2.1 million Mile Championship at Kyoto on Nov. 23. A 4-year-old gelding trained by Ian Black, Rahy's Attorney touched down at Tokyo's Narita International Airport after a 24-hour journey from Toronto and was immediately transferred to the Japan Racing Association's Shiroi Quarantine Center east of Tokyo.