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The Curragh's season will be shortened to mid-May through mid-September in 2017 to facilitate the racecourse's redevelopment. The Curragh will stage its typical 18 summer meetings, with some key early- and late-season races set to be staged at other venues, including Naas and Navan. These changes were revealed on Tuesday with HRI's release of the 2017 fixture list, which is expected to see flat races increase by 16 (to 1102 races) and National Hunt races decline by 15 (to 1412 races). These changes reflect the improvement of flat average field...

The Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe will again be staged away from its historic home at Longchamp Racecourse in 2017 after France Galop officials deemed the opening of the remodeled Longchamp to be too close to raceday, according to Racing Post. Chantilly will host the Arc, its undercard races and the preceding day's races for the first time this year on Oct. 1 and 2, with the reconstruction of Longchamp having begun the day after last year's Arc and all Longchamp races deferred to other tracks this year. The Arc...

The first time that Fastnet Rock (Aus) (Danehill) came to the British Isles was a damp squib. He arrived in Abington Place Stables in Newmarket's Bury Road in May 2005 with a big reputation, a champion Australian sprinter seemingly set to dominate Royal Ascot just as his compatriot and erstwhile stablemate Choisir (Aus) (Danehill Dancer {Ire}) had done two years previously. Disappointingly, an illness picked up in transit scuppered European racing plans for the magnificent bay colt, and he returned home, the trip wasted. For a while it seemed as...

Nick Peacock of Wicklow Bloodstock is looking forward to having a second crack at the G1 Melbourne Cup, this time with his Classic winner Wicklow Brave (GB) (Beat Hollow {GB}). Peacock has seen his Simenon (Ire) (Marju {Ire}) run a brave fourth in the race in 2013 and is getting excited about the possibility of making a return trip to Flemington in November. "We're now getting sorted for Australia and it is very exciting," said Peacock. "I don't even want to think about what sort of chance he has at...

The G1 QIPCO British Champion Sprint S. Oct. 15 could see one of last year's top European juveniles, Shalaa (Ire) (Invincible Spirit {Ire}), make his belated seasonal return. The John Gosden-trained colt enjoyed a five-race winning sequence last year that included two top-level events, the G1 Juddmonte Middle Park S. and the G1 Darley Prix Morny, but suffered a pelvic injury in the spring that ruled him out of the entire season so far. "We couldn't be happier with everything he's doing, John is very happy with him at the...

Curragh trainer Ken Condon is planning to play the long game with his exciting juvenile Landfall (Fr) (Myboycharlie {Ire}), who made it two-for-two at Leopardstown on Saturday. Though a surprise to many, the gelding's 2 1/4-length victory over Firey Speech (Street Cry {Ire}) in the G3 Willis Towers Watson Champion Juvenile S. was far from unexpected by his trainer who plans to give Landfall the rest of the season off. "What he did on Saturday was no surprise to us," said Condon. "He's a horse that had been showing up...

Jockey Club Racecourses have announced the extension of their Triple Crown for steeplechasers for the 2016/17 jumps season. If any horse wins the G1 Betfair Chase at Haydock in November, the 32red King George VI Chase at Kempton on Boxing Day and the G1 Timico Cheltenham Gold Cup in March, connections will receive a £1-million bonus split 65% to the winning owners, 15% to the trainer, 10% to the trainers stable staff and 10% to the jockey. The scheme was initiated last season and came close to being won when...

Trainer Jean-Claude Rouget is resting MG1SW Qemah (Ire) (Danehill Dancer {Ire}) for the remainder of the year, after her third-place effort in the G1 Coolmore Fastnet Rock Matron S. at Leopardstown. The Al Shaqab filly overcame a tardy start and some early keenness to finish a never dangerous third to Alice Springs (Ire) (Galileo {Ire}). "I think she will not run any more this year, as she has had a strong season," said Rouget. "We will certainly keep her for next year and make her a Group 1 filly again."...

3.45 Kempton, Mdn, £5,000, 2yo, f, 7f (AWT) LADY HESTER (Bernardini) is a daughter of the 2012 GI American Oaks and GI Alabama S. heroine Questing (GB) (Hard Spun) who debuts for Godolphin and John Gosden, who trained the dam to be placed in the G3 Prestige S. and G3 Oh So Sharp S. as a juvenile before she became a star Stateside. In opposition is Poilin Good's Luminous (GB) (Champs Elysees {GB}), a Simon Crisford-trained full-sister to the 2014 G2 Ribblesdale S. and 2015 G2 Lancashire Oaks runner-up Lustrous...

Both camps seem to have been coping somehow, and for quite a few years now, without having to heed this kind of impertinence. It is only with due deference, then, that anyone would dream of wondering quite how connections of Harzand (Ire) (Sea The Stars {Ire}) and 'TDN Rising Star' Idaho (Ire) (Galileo {Ire}) ended up transposing their most obvious destinies after repeatedly pitching the pair together in the first half of the season. Harzand, of course, won three times in three meetings, relegating Idaho to second in the G3...

In one of the biggest upsets of recent times, Order of St George was forced to surrender his Irish St Leger crown to the enterprisingly-ridden dual-purpose performer Wicklow Brave as Frankie Dettori shone on the big stage once again. A distant third behind that dominant rival in this last year, the bay who had previously recorded an impressive success for the all-conquering national hunt stable of Willie Mullins in the Cheltenham Festival's Vincent O'Brien County Hurdle was in that same spot in Ascot's G2 QIPCO British Champions Long Distance Cup...

Silverwave, runner-up to New Bay (GB) (Dubawi {Ire}) in the G2 Prix Niel on this card at Longchamp last year, ran 10th in the G1 Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe back there next time and transferred from Alain Couetil's yard to open up with a seventh for Pascal Bary going 10 panels here in the Apr. 10 G2 Prix d'Harcourt before posting a second in the Saint-Cloud's May 1 G1 Prix Ganay. Another left for dust by A Shin Hikari (Jpn) (Deep Impact {Jpn}) when third in the May 24...