Thu, 06/22/2006 - 00:00

Yeats returns in style to dominate Gold Cup

Edward Whitaker / Racing Post
Takeover Target (third from left), winning Tuesday's King's Stand, returns for Saturday's Golden Jubilee.

ASCOT, England - Yeats added a touch of class to a race that has long been the epitome of Thoroughbred stamina at Royal Ascot on Thursday. His four-length victory in the storied Ascot Gold Cup will give heart to everyone in the racing world who goes against the grain in believing that stamina has been ignored by breeders around the world.

Thu, 06/22/2006 - 00:00

Yeats triumphs in Ascot Gold Cup

Yeats added a touch of class to a race that has long been the epitome of Thoroughbred stamina at Royal Ascot on Thursday. His four-length victory in the storied Ascot Gold Cup will give heart to everyone in the racing world who goes against the grain in believing that stamina has been ignored by breeders around the world.

Thu, 06/22/2006 - 00:00

Takeover Target on three days' rest

Fresh off a head victory Tuesday in the five-furlong King's Stand Stakes at Royal Ascot, Australian raider Takeover Target will be wheeled right back Saturday in the Group 1, $647,000 Golden Jubilee Stakes.

Joe Janiak, the owner and trainer of Takeover Target, said he has no qualms about trying Takeover Target on three days' rest. Noting that it is the Southern Hemisphere equivalent of December in Australia now, Janiak was upbeat about Takeover Target's chances.

Wed, 06/21/2006 - 00:00

Ouija Board in Prince of Wales's upset

Edward Whitaker / Racing Post
Ouija Board (right), with Olivier Peslier riding, beats Electrocutionist in the Prince of Wales's on Wednesday.

Ouija Board upset Electrocutionist and David Junior at Royal Ascot Wednesday, leaving the boys in the dust and making the $688,000 Prince of Wales's Stakes the fifth Group 1 victory of her fabulous career.

Wed, 06/21/2006 - 00:00

Coronation will indeed crown the filly queen

ASCOT, England - No fewer than five 1000 Guineas winners will line up for Royal Ascot's $462,000 Coronation Stakes on Friday, making the Group 1, one-mile contest Europe's championship event for 3-year-old fillies.

Wed, 06/21/2006 - 00:00

Coronation will indeed crown the filly queen

ASCOT, England - No fewer than five 1000 Guineas winners will line up for Royal Ascot's $462,000 Coronation Stakes on Friday, making the Group 1, one-mile contest Europe's championship event for 3-year-old fillies. Speciosa will be the darling of the Ascot punters. The speed-burning winner of the 1000 Guineas at Newmarket is best suited to a mile, but her unheralded trainer, Pamela Sly, cannot be happy with her outside draw in a field of 15, one that will compromise her chances of making an easy lead on on Ascot's one-turn right-handed mile.

Tue, 06/20/2006 - 00:00

Takeover Target all out to win

Edward Whitaker / Racing Post
Araafa, Alan Munro up, wins the St James's Palace at Ascot. His trainer, Jeremy Noseda, called facing older horses "the obvious next step."

ASCOT, England - Australian invader Takeover Target scored one for the little man in the King's Stand Stakes, while Araafa's victory in the St. James's Palace Stakes established him as Europe's leading 3-year-old miler on opening day of Royal Ascot on Tuesday.

A reported 55,000, including Queen Elizabeth II, attended the meet's opener. It was the first full day of racing at Ascot since September 2004. In the intervening time, its 1960's-era stand was razed to make way for the new $350 million state-of-the-art grandstand.

Mon, 06/19/2006 - 00:00

Battle of 10-furlong titans

LONDON - In a match made at Nad Al Sheba, Electrocutionist and David Junior will finally meet on Wednesday at Royal Ascot. Their long-awaited clash at 1 1/4 miles in the $647,000 Prince of Wales's matches Europe's two highest-rated horses at the distance.

And the Prince of Wales's received added luster when Lord Derby dropped the name of his well-traveled mare Ouija Board into the entry box.

Mon, 06/19/2006 - 00:00

Dionisia wins Italian Oaks

Christophe Soumillon was the big winner at San Siro in Milan on Sunday as he guided Dionisia and Shamdala to victory in a pair of Group 1 stakes.

The French-based Belgian rider guided the 9-2 Dionisia to victory in the $745,000 Oaks d'Italia. It was easy pickings for Dionisia, who cruised home by six lengths over Twardowska, getting the 1 3/8 miles in 2:14.50 on firm ground. The winner, a Kentucky-bred daughter of Tejano Run, is trained by Riccardo Menichetti.

Sun, 06/18/2006 - 00:00

Soumillon big winner at San Siro

Christophe Soumillon was the big winner at San Siro in Milan on Sunday as he guided Dionisia and Shamdala to victory in a pair of valuable Group 1 stakes.