Yeats ended his Longchamp jinx on Sunday by winning the Group 1, $310,000 Prix Royal-Oak, the French equivalent of the St. Leger Stakes. After losses in the last two runnings of the Prix du Cadran at the Parisian track, Yeats swept clear in the stretch with Johnny Murtagh riding for a 1 1/2-length victory over Allegretto at 9-2.
In providing trainer Aidan O'Brien with his 22nd Group 1 winner of the year, Yeats covered the 1 15/16 miles on good ground in 3:19.30.
Seven jockeys who ignored or failed to see the false-start flag in the Prix de l'Abbaye de Longchamp on Oct. 5 were fined $2,000 each by France-Galop on Thursday.
The race was declared void after the gate of Fleeting Spirit failed to open. Andreas Suborics, who rode the undefeated Hungarian-trained Overdose to to a first-place finish, was fined for continuing to race after a false start was signaled, as were Frankie Dettori, Jim Crowley, Paul Hanagan, Darryll Holland, Adrian Nicholls, and Kevin Shea.
Princess Coup, the two-time winner of New Zealands only million-dollar race, the Kelt Capital Stakes, will be the favorite in one of Australias most important contests on Saturday, the $2.7 million Cox Plate, a 1 1/4-mile Group 1 contest at Moonee Valley in Melbourne.
The Irish trainer-jockey combination of Jim Bolger and Kevin Manning were once more the toast of Newmarket on Saturday as they pulled off a Group 1 double with hot favorite New Approach in the Champion Stakes and outsider Intense Focus in the Dewhurst Stakes.
The two races could not have been more different. New Approach, having the final race of his life, took his career bankroll to near the $4 million mark with a dominant display, trimming almost a second off the course record as he covered the 1 1/4 miles on good turf in 2:00.13.
The developing crisis in Italian racing deepened this week with the announcement that Sunday's card at San Siro in Milan has been canceled. Lost are two Group 1 races, the 1 1/2-mile Gran Premio del Jockey Club and the one-mile Gran Criterium for juvenile colts and fillies. They are not expected to be rescheduled.
NEW YORK With 31 foreign-trained horses likely to go forward in this years Breeders Cup, there is reason for celebration. The list includes three of Europes 10 highest-rated older horses in Duke of Marmalade, Soldier of Fortune, and Eagle Mountain, three of their eight best 3-year-olds in Ravens Pass, Henrythenavigator and Conduit, and, arguably, their best 2-year-old colt, Bushranger.
American breeder Betty Moran of Brushwood Stables was the headliner Wednesday at the final session of the Tattersalls October Book 2 yearling sale in Newmarket, England. Represented by agent Maxine Cowdrey, Pennsylvania-based Moran splashed out the sale-topping, and sale-record, price of 420,000 guineas for a Danehill Dancer colt. The price was about $762,930.
Sheikhs Mohammed and Hamdan al-Maktoum and Irish-based Coolmore Stud remained on the buyers' list Tuesday at the Tattersalls October Book 2 yearling sale in Newmarket, England. But the sale still posted declines versus last year's figures.
Sheikh Hamdan's Shadwell Estate Company purchased the session topper, a colt by Marju out of the Peintre Celebre mare What a Picture. The price was the equivalent of about $312,375. Meadowlands Stud consigned the colt.
The Aga Khan has retired his undefeated Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe heroine Zarkava.
In a press release issued Monday, the Aga Khan announced that he will breed the 3-year-old homebred filly to his stallion Dalakhani, who won the Arc in 2003 and was named Europe's Horse of the Year that season. So far, the 8-year-old Darshaan stallion has sired 2008 Irish Oaks winner Moonstone and 2008 St. Leger winner Conduit from his first crop of 3-year-olds.