Kahyasi, the 1988 winner of both the Epsom and Irish derbies, was euthanized at the Haras de Bonneval farm of his owner and breeder, the Aga Khan, in France after it was discovered that he had incurable tumors. He was 23.
An Irish-bred son of the Nijinsky stallion Ile de Bourbon, Kahyasi was trained in Newmarket by Luca Cumani. He won 5 of 7 starts for earnings of $1,207,908.
Henry Cecil can return to the Royal Ascot winner's circle on Wednesday with the fast-improving Phoenix Tower, a lightly raced 4-year-old who looks like a perfect fit in the $730,000 Prince of Wales's Stakes.
A Chester House colt, bred and owned by Juddmonte Farms, Phoenix Tower suffered his first loss in five starts last month when he finished second to Creachadoir in the Group 1 Lockinge Stakes at one mile, but his pedigree suggests he will have no problem staying the Prince of Wales's 1 1/4 miles.
Catalogs for the July 8-11 Tattersalls July sale are available at , with print copies to be available June 16. The auction in Newmarket, England, has cataloged 915 horses - including broodmares, broodmare prospects, horses in training, and yearlings.
One of the featured horses is Looker, a Barathea half-sister to recent Epsom Oaks winner Look Here.
The Australian government's inquiry into 2007's widespread outbreak of equine influenza has blamed quarantine services for allowing the disease into the general horse population.
The outbreak of the highly contagious disease prompted a nationwide ban on horse transport for weeks and crippled the Australian breeding seasons in the Thoroughbred centers of New South Wales and Queensland last year.
With 17 group races worth a total of $6.1 million, next week's Royal Ascot rates as the richest meeting on the British calendar. Its five days, from Tuesday through Saturday, are a cornucopia of high-class international action with horses seeking a piece of the pie from France, Ireland, Germany, Italy, Spain, Australia, and New Zealand. Many of England's best will line up for the home defense in what promises to be a vintage renewal of the Royal Meeting at the track founded by Queen Anne in 1811.
So easy was Zarkava's cruise control victory in the $1.2 million Prix de Diane at Chantilly on Sunday, her rider Christophe Soumillon was blowing kisses to the grandstand at the sixteenth pole. This three-length French Oaks triumph, coming on the heels of an equally impressive score in the French 1000 Guineas four weeks ago, established Zarkava, an Zaminday filly owned by the Aga Khan, as very likely the best of her generation anywhere in the world.
New Approach, the 2007 European champion 2-year-old who for much of the last two months had been ruled out of the Epsom Derby by his Irish trainer, Jim Bolger, justified a late change of mind and won the $2.6 million event at Epsom on Saturday.
It was a first success in Britains premier race for Bolger, 66, who on numerous occasions stated his intention to skip Epsom with New Approach and instead aim the son of Galileo at the Irish Derby.
Zarkava, unbeaten in four races, will be a short-priced favorite in the Prix de Diane, or French Oaks, at 1 5/16 miles at Chantilly on Sunday.
Owned by the Aga Khan, Zarkava has looked unbeatable so far, but her career is very one-dimensional. All the filly's wins have been in one-mile races at Longchamp. Now she faces a new distance and a new course.