Europe

This year's Dubai Duty Free Shergar Cup has already received plenty of publicity following Hayley Turner's return to the saddle from retirement to captain the girls' team in place of the injured Michelle Payne, and there has been another reshuffle of team members with Cathy Gannon failing to recover from injury in time to take up her place. The unique team-based contest, which pitches an all-female squad against teams of jockeys from the UK and Ireland, Europe and the rest of the world, takes place at Ascot on Saturday, Aug....

The Richard Hannon-trained Illuminate (Ire) (Zoffany {Ire}--Queen of Stars, by Green Desert), one of the stars of the first crop of Zoffany (Ire), has been retired after failing to recapture her solid juvenile form. Now three, Illuminate won her first three starts for her owner Prince Faisal Salman, including the G3 Albany S. at Royal Ascot and G2 Duchess of Cambridge S. before going on to finish runner-up to Lumiere (GB) (Shamardal) in the G1 Connolly's Red Mill Chevely Park S. Sixth on her sole start outside England when sent...

Having never ridden at Goodwood before, Chris Hayes will have two bullets to fire this week. G Force (Ire) (Tamayuz {GB}) isn't without his chance in the notoriously competitive Qatar Stewards' Cup on Saturday, having been handled patiently by new trainer Adrian Keatley since being relocated from David O'Meara's yard. With all due respect to the former G1 Betfred Sprint Cup victor however, our focus is on Awtaad (Ire) (Cape Cross {Ire}) in the G1 Qatar Sussex S. The race possesses all the ingredients for affirming the 'Glorious' soubriquet once...

Last season's G1 Ascot Gold Cup winner Trip To Paris (Ire) (Champs Elysees {GB}) will miss this week's G2 Qatar Goodwood Cup and be aimed instead at the G2 Lonsdale Cup at York's Ebor meeting. The 5-year-old, who also ran fourth in last year's G1 Emirates Melbourne Cup, returned to action on July 16 after more than seven months off the track following a tendon injury. His reappearance in the 10-furlong Listed Bet365 S. at Newbury saw him finish a respectable third, just over three lengths off the winner, Scottish...

Clive Cox has already notched the G2 Prix Robert Papin-G1 Prix Morny double with Reckless Abandon (GB) (Exchange Rate) in 2012 and the Lambourn trainer is aiming to repeat that feat with Tis Marvellous (GB) (Harbour Watch {Ire}), who landed the first leg at Maisons-Laffitte on Sunday. The winner of two of his three starts, Tis Marvellous, who is owned, as Reckless Abandon was, by Julie Deadman and Stephen Barrow, looks set to return to France for next month's G1 Darley Prix Morny following his victory over Al Johrah (GB)...

Albeit the perennial yearning for Saratoga will always cause a degree of personal restlessness, in every other respect this has always been an especially engaging phase of the European season. On the one hand, having established a pecking order in the Classics, the 3-year-olds can start to answer a new set of questions against their seniors. At the same time, the next generation is coming into ever sharper relief. As a result, even those who complain of a perceived dulling in the historic lustre of the G1 King George &...

    Next month's G2 Sky Bet Lowther S. could be the next outing for Frankel (GB)'s highly impressive first stakes winner Fair Eva (GB), but her trainer Roger Charlton has expressed his confidence that the daughter of the Group 1-winning sprinter African Rose (GB) (Observatory) will be capable of staying a mile. "From the day she came here, we were very excited by her," said Charlton of the four-length winner of Saturday's G2 Princess Margaret Juddmonte S. over six furlongs. "She was always very professional and, as you saw...

With the G2 Norfolk S. winner Prince of Lir (Ire) (Kodiac {GB}) flopping in fifth, it was his compatriot Tis Marvellous who emerged clear best with this impressive display of speed to emulate the same owners's 2012 winner Reckless Abandon (GB) (Exchange Rate). Earning this tilt with an eight-length success in a six-furlong Windsor maiden July 11, the bay who had previously finished runner-up on debut to the useful listed-placed Mutawatheb (Ire) (Dark Angel {Ire}) at Newbury June 30 was sent straight into a duel for the lead with Prince...

Classic and dual Group 1 winner Covert Love (Ire) (Azamour {Ire}–Wing Stealth {Ire}, by Hawk Wing) will begin her broodmare career in Japan after being purchased privately by Katsumi Yoshida's Northern Farm. The news was confirmed on Saturday by the 4-year-old's co-breeder Hugo Merry, who brokered the deal with Emmanuel de Seroux of Narvick International. Merry bred Covert Love in partnership with Mark McStay at his farm in Cork. She went through the ring for €26,000 at the Goffs Orby Yearling Sale in 2013, with Merry and McStay staying in...

Sunday's G2 Prix Robert Papin at Maisons-Laffitte features the G2 Norfolk S. winner Prince of Lir (Ire) (Kodiac {GB}), who sets a clear standard on the form of that five-furlong test at Royal Ascot June 16. The runner-up The Last Lion (Ire) (Choisir {Aus}), who he had also beaten on his debut at Beverley May 28, has since scored at listed level while the fourth, Peace Envoy (Fr) (Power {GB}), won the G3 Anglesey S., and a reproduction of that performance should be enough to account for his opposition. "Since...

GET REEL Market indications were that Highland Reel (Ire) (Galileo {Ire}) was ready to really unload at Ascot on Saturday and under a masterclass of riding from the front by Ryan Moore duly justified heavy support as the 13-8 favourite in the G1 King George VI and Queen Elizabeth S. Whatever the consequences of the withdrawal of last year's winner Postponed (Ire) (Dubawi {Ire}) on this renewal, there was much to admire about the way the colt who had long promised to land a European race of this stature went...

On one of the rare occasions that Time Test has had his favoured summer ground, he had a revived Mondialiste to contend with but pulled out the bit extra that sets him aside from most pattern-race performers to put himself back on track. Looking ready to fulfil the lofty expectations that have accompanied him throughout his short career when registering an impressive success under a penalty in the G3 Brigadier Gerard S. on his 4-year-old bow over 10 furlongs at Sandown May 26, the homebred was laboured when third in...