Refuse to Bend lived up to his name on Saturday when he outgamed Warssan to win the Group 1, $687,000 Eclipse Stakes at Sandown Park.
Owned by Godolphin, the 7-1 Refuse to Bend had signaled a return to form when winning last month's one-mile Queen Anne Stakes at Royal Ascot. He proved in the Eclipse that he is fully capable of staying 10 furlongs, a distance he was trying for the first time in the Eclipse.
Either of two British invaders, Phoenix Reach and Gamut, can upset the plans of Westerner and Polish Summer in Sunday's $425,000 Group 1 Grand Prix de Saint-Cloud. Phoenix Reach is unbeaten in three tries at the Grand Prix's distance of 1 1/2 miles, while Gamut won the 1 1/2-mile Group 2 Jockey Club Stakes on May 2.
Rakti puts his impressive credentials on the line in the Group 1 Eclipse Stakes at Sandown Park on Saturday, just 17 days after soundly beating nine Royal Ascot rivals in the Prince of Wales's Stakes.
Rated by Timeform as the best horse in the world at the Eclipse distance of 1 1/4 miles, at 131, Rakti appears to have a clear edge over his 12 foes in the $725,000 race.
The undefeated Bago will be aimed at the Breeders' Cup Classic following his late-closing victory over Cacique in the Group 1 Grand Prix de Paris at Longchamp on Sunday.
The 1 1/4-mile, $610,000 contest was the sixth straight victory for Bago, who was the highweighted 2-year-old on the International Classification last year. The Grand Prix de Paris win prompted Alan Cooper, racing manager for the Niarchos Family, to announce that Bago, a 3-year-old son of Nashwan trained by Jonathan Pease, will be campaigned for the balance of the year with the Classic in mind.
Dermot Weld has waved his magic wand on numerous occasions in the past, most notably on the international stage when winning the Belmont Stakes with Go and Go and the Melbourne Cup with both Vintage Crop and Media Puzzle.
On Sunday, Weld turned a trick in his own backyard at The Curragh by engineering Grey Swallow's surprise victory in the Irish Derby.
Chorist produced a gutsy front-running effort to hold off favored Alexander Goldrun and win the Group 1 Audi Pretty Polly Stakes at The Curragh on Saturday.
The 8-5 second choice behind Alexander Goldrun at 3-2, Chorist looked beaten when Alexander Godrun almost drew even passing the furlong marker. But Chorist, a 5-year-old mare who is owned and bred by the Cheveley Park Stud, proved impossible to pass and was drawing away at the line to win by a half-length.
Day Flight is in a position from which he can spring an upset over the Epsom Derby winner, North Light, in the $1.5 million Irish Derby at The Curragh on Sunday.
The 20-length winner of the listed Glasgow Stakes at York in his next-to-last start, Day Flight led from the three-eighths pole to the sixteenth pole in the French Derby on June 6, staying on well to be fourth, beaten only 1 1/4 lengths by Blue Canari.
While most of the racing world will focus on the Irish Derby on Sunday, the colt who may be the best 3-year-old in Europe will be running at Longchamp in the $605,000 Grand Prix de Paris.
The 5-for-5 Bago has frightened away most of his competition in the 1 1/4-mile Group 1 contest, in which only three will challenge him. One of those is his stablemate, Alnitak, who is in the race solely to insure a decent pace.
NEW YORK - There were two big noises made at Royal Ascot last week. One came from Godolphin, which won six of the 16 group races during the five-day meeting. The other came from Alec Wildenstein, the French owner and breeder who has been striking a number of discordant notes of late.
First, Godolphin, which looked like the all-conquering juggernaut of old with a resounding return to form after a year of, what was for it, relative obscurity.