NEW YORK - If the weekly World Rankings rating the leading candidates in six Breeders' Cup races are to be believed, five of the six winners could be European-based.
Skip to main content
Create Your DRF Account
New to DRF?
Everything you could possibly
need in one place
need in one place
Register
Don't have an account?
Register Here
DRF Past Performances
The last three runnings of the Prix d'Astarte at Deauville have produced 17 future American runners. Ten of them have won here, and five of those - England's Legend, Iftiraas, No Matter What, Amonita, and Glia - have won American stakes.
Saturday's renewal of the straight Group 2 mile for fillies and mares promises to be better than ever. Twelve are entered for the $112,000, half of whom are group-race winners.
Russian Rhythm may or may not attempt the step up from a mile to 1 1/4 miles in Saturday's Group 1 Nassau Stakes at Goodwood.
Winner of the 1000 Guineas and the Coronation Stakes, both Group 1 miles, Russian Rhythm may not run in the Nassau unless the ground firms up a bit. Trainer Michael Stoute will not make a decision as to whether she will make her first start against older fillies and mares until the morning of the race.
Wafic Said, one of the Arab world's leading international horsemen, announced on Thursday that he is leaving racing at the end of the year.
Said, a Saudi businessman whose insurance company Sagitta dropped its sponsorship of both the 1000 and 2000 Guineas in June, cited his increased absence from Britain as the main reason for his decision. All of his horses, the 30 or so he has in training, 16 broodmares and a number of yearlings, will be dispersed at auctions conducted by Tattersalls this autumn in England.
Carrizo Creek defeated the prodigious forces of Coolmore and the Maktoums to take the Group 2 Richmond Stakes on Tuesday, opening day of the five-day Glorious Goodwood meeting.
Trained by Brian Meehan for James Threadwell, the 2-year-old Carrizo Creek came from last to first to defeat Old Deuteronomy, owned by Mrs. John Magnier, by a half-length, with the Sheikh Mohammed-owned Cedarberg a head farther back in third.
DUBLIN - The King George VI and Queen Elizabeth Diamond Stakes, an appropriately regal name for Britain's biggest midsummer race, took place at Ascot last Saturday and was the finest renewal in recent memory, featuring 11 Group 1 winners in a field of 14.
The King George, worth about $650,000 to the winner, is an all-ages affair, and two of Europe's most talented 3-year-olds - Kris Kin from England and Alamshar from Ireland - were tackling their more experienced elders and trying to take advantage of a 12-pound break in the weights.
Moon Ballad will represent Godolphin at Goodwood on Wednesday in the Sussex Stakes, the first of four weight-for-age Group 1 miles that traditionally determine the European challenge in the Breeders' Cup Mile.
Not that Moon Ballad, the handy five-length winner of the Dubai World Cup, is headed to the Mile. Plans still call for him to run in the Classic, but after his ninth-place finish in the 1 1/4-mile Prince of Wales's Stakes, Godolphin has decided to try something different.
Alamshar scored one of the most impressive victories in the 53-year history of the $1.2 million King George VI and Queen Elizabeth Diamond Stakes at Ascot on Saturday, when he powered to a 3 1/2-length victory over Sulamani.
Sent off at 13-2, Alamshar went clear at the quarter pole under Johnny Murtagh after having tracked the pacesetting longshot Izdiham. Sulamani, the Godolphin Racing-owned third choice at 9-2, gave chase but could not catch Alamshar, who covered the 1 1/2 miles in 2:33.26 on a course listed as good, good-to-soft in places.
Khalid Abdullah, the leading owner this year in both France and Britain, can land yet another big prize with Marching West in the Group 2 Prix Robert Papin at Maisons-Laffitte on Sunday.
A 2-year-old full sister to Zafonic trained by Andre Fabre, Marching West was the nose winner of an allowance race in her Deauville debut on July 9. She should improve enough off that effort to take the 5 1/2-furlong Papin from Much Faster, the Fasliyev filly who won the Group 3 Prix du Bois at Deauville on July 5.