PARIS, France - Bago could become the first winner of the Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe to test his mettle in the Breeders' Cup Classic.
The half-length victory of the 3-year-old 6.70-1 son of Nashwan in Europe's championship race at Longchamp on Sunday proved that he could stay a mile and a half, a distance over which he had failed when finishing just third in his Arc prep, the Group 2 Prix Niel.
PARIS - Cacique presented his Breeders' Cup Mile credentials with a late-running victory in the Group 2 Prix Daniel Wildenstein at Longchamp on Saturday.
A 3-year-old full brother to 2001 Breeders' Cup Filly and Mare Turf winner Banks Hill, Cacique had been following Bago around the track in three Group 1 races this summer and fall. In between, he had managed to win the Group 3 Prix Daphnis at 1 1/8 miles, but his trainer, Andre Fabre, admitted he had been running at the wrong distance.
PARIS - While the .
A 2-year-old Kingmambo filly who will start as a short-priced favorite in the Group 1, $300,000 Boussac, Divine Proportions has yet to put a foot wrong in four starts, all of them against colts. The one-mile Boussac will be her first race beyond six furlongs, and also her first solely against fillies.
PARIS - Ascot Racecourse has been the scene of many great occurrences during its 193-year history. It has been graced by the presence of 11 British monarchs, 12 if one counts the wayward Edward VIII, who attended the Royal Meeting as Prince of Wales before abdicating this throne in favor of marrying a social-climbing American.
Among Thoroughbred royalty, there has been no greater representative than Brown Jack, who won the Queen Alexandra Stakes, at 2 3/4 miles the world's longest flat race, six times in succession between 1929 and 1934.
PARIS - The 83rd running of the $1.92 million at Longchamp on Sunday, while not the greatest renewal of Europe's championship race, is hardly lackluster as 12 of its 20 entrants are Group 1 winners.
The absence, however, of a standout like Dalakhani, Montjeu, or Peintre Celebre, exacerbated by the recent withdrawals of Doyen, Sulamani, and Mubtaker, makes this the most wide-open Arc in at least two decades.
PARIS - Four Group 2 races at Longchamp on Saturday on the eve of the Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe look unlikely to produce any Breeders' Cup candidates, but the Group 1 Sun Chariot Stakes at Newmarket has at least two fillies who could wind up at Lone Star Park on Oct. 30.
Gary Stevens has lost his appeal against the 20 day suspension imposed on him for refusing to ride Sopran Foldan in the Group 3 Premio Tudini at the Capannelle on May 30.
The disciplinary committee of UNIRE (the Italian equivalent of the BHB) heard the appeal on Monday (September 27) and decided to uphold both the ban and the 1500 euro fine handed down by the Capannelle stewards on race day.
Tap Dance City, declared out of Sunday's Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe after a scheduled Air France flight from Tokyo to Paris was canceled Sunday, found another flight that was to enable him to arrive at Longchamp on Tuesday.
And so the winner of last year's Japan Cup will run in the Arc after all, although the heavy ground he might prefer does not seem to be materializing.
PARIS, France - An already wide open Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe lost much of its international luster on Monday when Tap Dance City was declared out of the race by trainer Shozo Sasaki.
The Japanese-based 7-year-old was unable to fly from Tokyo to Paris on Sunday due to technical difficulties on his scheduled Air France flight. As the next possible flight to Paris would not leave Tokyo until Wednesday, Sasaki ruled Tap Dance City out of the Arc due to the brief amount of time the horse would have to recover from such a long journey.
ASCOT, England - Ascot specialist Rakti could be headed to the Breeders' Cup Mile after a hard-earned half-length victory over longshot Lucky Story in the Queen Elizabeth II Stakes on Saturday.
Godolphin-owned Refuse to Bend, who finished third, will be coming to Lone Star Park for the Mile, as well, but plans for Soviet Song, sixth as the 5-2 favorite in the $450,000 Group 1 mile, were up in the air on a day when showers failed to dampen a course labeled good to firm.
