ETOBICOKE, Ontario - rung out the Canadian Thoroughbred racing season in style on Friday night, taking home Sovereign Awards as Horse of the Year, top older male, and top turf male before a gathering of 300 at the Wyndham Bristol Place Hotel.
Racing for The Two Bit Racing Stable and trainer Catherine Day Phillips, A Bit O'Gold won Woodbine's Grade 3 Dominion Day Handicap on the dirt and Grade 2 Chinese Cultural Centre and Grade 2 Sky Classic on turf while banking $597,336 in 2005.
NEW YORK - The 2005 list of the 100 richest flat races in the world bears a strong resemblance to the 2004 list. The Dubai World Cup remains the most valuable race in the world at $6 million, but the Breeders' Cup Classic leapfrogged over the Japan Cup into second place, thanks to the $800,000 supplementary fee required to get Starcraft into the race.
Only Ouija Board's victory in the Hong Kong Vase prevented Asian-trained horses from a sweep of the Hong Kong International Races at Sha Tin on Sunday as American raiders Willow O Wisp and Nicole's Dream both finished out of the money in their races.
Only Ouija Board's victory in the Hong Kong Vase prevented Asian-trained horses from a sweep of the Hong Kong International Races at Sha Tin on Sunday as American raiders Willow O Wisp and Nicole's Dream both finished out of the money in their races.
Willow O Wisp and Nicole's Dream were left alone to carry American hopes in Sunday's Hong Kong International Races at Sha Tin after Designed for Luck was withdrawn from the Hong Kong Mile on Friday because of lameness.
Two days after trainer Vladimir Cerin had stated that Designed for Luck was "the soundest he's been in a long time," the horse was discovered lame in his right hind fetlock and scratched. Cerin, however, still has high hopes for Willow O Wisp in the $2.32 million, 1 1/4-mile Hong Kong Cup, one of four Group 1 races on the card.
Nicole's Dream may have lucked into an ideal stand-side draw for her run in Sunday's Hong Kong Sprint. Meanwhile, Designed for Luck drew ideally but Willow O Wisp less fortunately for their Hong Kong International Races at Sha Tin on Sunday.
German ace Andrasch Starke captured his second Cathay Pacific International Jockeys Championship at Happy Valley in Hong Kong on Wednesday night as Edgar Prado finished seventh in the 12-rider, three-race contest.
After finishing second aboard Right Choice and third on Desert Strike in the first two legs, Starke clinched the title with a winning ride on the 8-1 shot Sunbell in the final leg, in which Prado made his best showing with a third aboard Konrad the Great. Starke, who took home a modest first prize of $25,780, had previously won the Hong Kong challenge in 2000.
Edgar Prado squares off against some of the world's leading riders at Happy Valley Racecourse in Hong Kong Wednesday night in the annual Cathay Pacific International Jockeys Championship.
Prado, who finished 10th behind Yasunari Iwata in the World Super Jockeys Series this past weekend at Hanshin in Japan, will be up against Kieren Fallon, Michael Kinane, Olivier Peslier, Christophe Soumillon, and Yutaka Take, among others, in the three-race contest.
Alkaased will attempt to become the first Japan Cup winner to add a victory in the Group 1 Hong Kong Vase, a $1.8 million 1 1/2-mile contest at Sha Tin on Dec. 11.
Trainer Luca Cumani gave Alkaased the go-ahead for Hong Kong on Wednesday morning just three days after Alkaased, a Kingmambo 5-year-old, had landed Japan's biggest international race. Cumani, however, will have to find a new rider for Alkaased, as Frankie Dettori, who rode him to victory in Tokyo, will be claimed by Godolphin in the Vase for Cherry Mix, the recent winner of the Gran Premio del Jockey Club in Milan.
