Europe

A high-class edition of the Boyle Sports Lockinge Stakes is in prospect at Newbury on Saturday, with Damysus (Frankel), Opera Ballo (Ghaiyyath) and Zeus Olympios (Night Of Thunder) headlining a 13-strong list of contenders for the Group 1 showpiece. Damysus kicked off his four-year-old campaign with an impressive victory in last month's G3 Earl Of Sefton Stakes at Newmarket, while Opera Ballo had Zeus Olympios back in third when winning the G2 bet365 Mile at Sandown. Trainer Karl Burke expects Zeus Olympios to strip fitter with that outing under his...

With just a few pieces of the jigsaw still to be slotted into place this week at York, the Epsom picture has emerged a little more clearly over the past week or so through some key Derby and Oaks trials at Chester, Lingfield and Leopardstown. Most have been dominated by Aidan O'Brien, including a clean sweep of the five stakes races on the Roodee. So where better to start than at Ballydoyle on a fresh Monday morning with a trainer in a jovial mood after bagging his second Classic of...

Trainer Tetsuhide Tsuji celebrated his first Group 1 success at Tokyo on Sunday when Rodeo Drive (Saturnalia) denied Ask Ikigomi (Lord Kanaloa) in a pulsating finish to the NHK Mile Cup. Damian Lane took his medicine in the early stages aboard race favourite Rodeo Drive, who had a tricky draw to navigate in stall 17 of 18. Racing towards the rear of the field for much of the contest, the son of Saturnalia still trailed the pacesetters by the best part of 10 lengths entering the straight, shadowing the every...

Springing a minor surprise in Sunday's G3 Cashel Palace Hotel Derby Trial Stakes at Leopardstown, Aziz Kheir's James J Braddock (Zarak) swooped late to deny Pierre Bonnard (Camelot) for Joseph in the all-O'Brien affair. Sent off at 9-1 for the 10-furlong prep, the Ballysax fifth was waited with by Dylan Browne McMonagle and delivered in the nick of time to oust Ballydoyle's long-time ante-post Derby favourite in the shade of the post for a short-head verdict. Pierre Bonnard's pacemaking stablemate Endorsement (Wootton Bassett) stuck to his task to be a...

Staged in relentless driving rain, Sunday's G1 Poule d'Essai des Pouliches offered a dramatic backdrop to the continued rise of Ballydoyle's brilliant Diamond Necklace who provided St Mark's Basilica with his first Classic. Sent off the 4-5 favourite returning to the ParisLongchamp track over which she had dominated the Prix Marcel Boussac in the autumn, the regally-bred TDN Rising Star tracked the early pace under cover before being sent down to the rail at the straight's cutaway. Surging to the front 300 metres from the finish, she was kept up...

Aga Khan Studs homebred Rayif (Sea The Moon), whose year-older half-sister Rayevka (Blue Point) took the G3 Prix de Saint-Georges earlier on the card, became trainer Francis Graffard's first winner of ParisLongchamp's G1 Emirates Poule d'Essai des Poulains with a dominant performance in this year's renewal. He becomes the the Aga Khan Studs' first winner of the race since Sendawar in 1999. "I always prefer to prepare the horses I train with races that gradually bring them towards the major targets, but this time I didn't really have a choice...

Sunday's G2 Camille Pissarro Coolmore Prix Saint-Alary looked as strong a renewal as there has been in recent years and despite her odds, there was no fluke in the success of Lapotheose (Wootton Bassett). Kept to the provinces before this acid test, Riviera Equine and Maurice Lagasse's homebred had come from a narrow win in the Listed Prix Caravelle at Toulouse last month, where she had extended her unbeaten tally but was in considerably deeper here. Held up in rear early by Alexis Pouchin as Baccari Racing Stable's Concorde Agreement...

Sunday, ParisLongchamp, France, post time: 15:50, EMIRATES POULE D'ESSAI DES POULAINS-G1, €650,000, 3yo, c, 8fT Field: Khovikhov (Fr) (Al Wukair {Ire}), Rayif (Ire) (Sea The Moon {Ger}), Hankelow (Ire) (Night Of Thunder {Ire}), Segall (Ire) (Sottsass {Fr}), Komorebi (Ire) (Pinatubo {Ire}), Mijas (Fr) (Karakontie {Jpn}), Puerto Rico (Ire) (Wootton Bassett {GB}), Imperior (Fr) (Siyouni {Fr}), Good Bye Manu (Ire) (Almanzor {Fr}), Dorset (Ire) (Wootton Bassett {GB}), Elastic (Fr) (Lope De Vega {Ire}), Nighttime (Fr) (Wootton Bassett {GB}), Wootton Centurion (Ire) (Wootton Bassett {GB}). TDN Analysis: Coolmore's G1 Prix Jean-Luc Lagardere...

DEAUVILLE, FRANCE -- On the eve of Zanthos's eagerly-anticipated return in the French 1,000 Guineas, the Rockfel Stakes winner's consignor Roderic Kavanagh unleashed another show-stopping Sioux Nation filly at €1.1million to Anthony Stroud at the Arqana Breeze-Up Sale. Kavanagh turned Zanthos from a €48,000 yearling into a €1 million sensation at this sale 12 months ago and now the Simon and Ed Crisford-trained filly is as short as 7-1 to taste Classic glory for Victorious Forever at ParisLongchamp on Sunday.  Stroud revealed that the Sioux Nation filly, bred on the...

Introduced in Albert Einstein's maiden at Naas on Saturday, Ballydoyle's costly colt Confucius (No Nay Never) upstaged that much-vaunted stablemate in terms of winning time to become his sire's 13th TDN Rising Star, Presented by Hagyard. Out quickly in the near-six-furlong test staged on ground probably quicker than the official description of good, the 1.7million gns Tattersalls October Book 1 purchase who was narrowly denied on debut at The Curragh last month was strong on the clock throughout as he saw off the smart Jack Davison-trained newcomer Alaskan Bear (Kodiac)...

For the second consecutive year, a daughter of Sioux Nation had Roderic Kavanagh and Cormac O'Flynn of Glending Stables celebrating a seven-figure windfall at the Arqana Breeze-up Sale when lot 82 was knocked down to Anthony Stroud for €1,100,000. Twelve months ago, it was a similar story when Stroud struck the winning bid of €1,000,000 for a Sioux Nation filly from the Kildaragh Stud draft. Later named Zanthos, she returns to France this weekend as a leading contender for Sunday's Poule d'Essai des Pouliches in the Victorious Forever silks, having...

Britain will have at least one key player in the Derby after TDN Rising Star Maltese Cross (Sea The Stars) battled to prevail in Saturday's Listed Lingfield Derby Trial for the William Haggas stable. After a thrilling tussle with fellow Brit Bay Of Brilliance (New Bay) in the extended 11-furlong prep, George Waud's flagbearer who took a key Newbury Derby pointer last month edged that Ralph Beckett-trained colt by a neck as they pulled 6 1/2 lengths clear of Balzac (Japan) in third. "He did well at Newbury, but I must...