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Run over the same course and distance as the G1 Dubai World Cup, the final leg of the Al Maktoum Challenge sees Godolphin's African Story (GB) (Pivotal {GB}) face the starter for the second time since causing an upset in the world's richest race last year. The 8-year-old will need to show some significant improvement from his seasonal reappearance in the Al Maktoum Challenge Round 2, where he was never a challenge for Salem bin Ghadayer's progressiveFrankyfourfingers (Fr) (Sunday Break {Jpn}). African Story remains the highest-rated in the field by a comfortable margin...

Richard Hughes, who was crowned British Champion jockey for the last three seasons, has revealed that he will retire from the saddle at the end of 2015 and take up training in Stockton, Hampshire. The Irish-born 42-year-old was in Newmarket Wednesday to attend a trainer's course at the British Racing School and told Racing Post, “I feel physically like I could ride for another five years. My weight is fine and my hunger is as strong as ever. I still have a huge desire to ride as many winners as...

by James Willoughby When Sheikh Mohammed's bloodstock adviser John Ferguson took out a licence to train over jumps, this code of racing popular in Britain and Ireland suddenly became more interesting. Watching blue-blooded ex-Maktoum family horses in regular conflict with jumping types promised to be a novelty, even to those of us with limited interest in so-called National Hunt racing.   Ferguson had his first runner over jumps in 2010, since then he has built up a thriving operation at his Bloomfields property at Cowlinge, near Newmarket. Next week, he has...

Brown Panther (GB) (Shirocco {Ger}) is firmly on course for the G2 DRC Gold Cup at Meydan at the end of this month after pleasing connections in a routine spin after racing at Wolverhampton Monday. It is almost four years since Tom Dascombe's stayer reduced part-owner and ex-footballer Michael Owen to tears with victory at Royal Ascot and there were similarly joyous scenes in the winner's enclosure at The Curragh last autumn after he delivered the Group 1 prize he had long promised in the G1 Irish St Leger. The 7-year-old...

The upward figures observed during the three-day Session I of the 2015 Inglis Premier Yearling Sale continued into Session II Wednesday, resulting in new record average, gross and clearance rate. 115 lots sold on Wednesday for a combined A$3,680,500, while the A$32,004 average demonstrated a 4% increase from last year's sale. The median also rose 4% to A$26,000, and the clearance rate for the session reached a record 80%. The gross for the four-day Inglis Premier Sale as a whole is up to a record A$48,651,000 for 584 yearlings sold...

One year on from annexing the G1 1000 Guineas with Miss France (Ire) (Dansili {GB}), 26-times French Champion trainer Andre Fabre is out to land a repeat victory with High Celebrity (Fr) (Invincible Spirit {Ire}) on Sunday 3 May. High Celebrity is one of 29 overseas-trained hopes among the 63 entries for the £410,000 Group 1 contest which closed on Tuesday.  “High Celebrity has done well over the winter and I am happy with her, she was already well developed as a 2-year-old but she has put on weight,” Fabre said. “She...

By Steve Sherack Black Rock Thoroughbreds' unbeaten Far From Over (Blame--Alchemist, by A.P. Indy)--an improbable winner of the Feb. 7 GIII Withers S. (video) in his second career start after stumbling badly at the break, will have a pair of additional co-owners when lining up next for the GI Twinspires.com Wood Memorial S. at Aqueduct Apr. 4.  Steven Marshall, the president of Western Energy Production company, has sold a 25-percent interest in the $550,000 KEESEP yearling graduate to James Covello (click here for a TDN feature) and Sol Kumin of Madaket Stable. Marshall also...

A total of 83 colts have been entered for the QIPCO 2000 Guineas, to be run at Newmarket's Rowley Mile racecourse Sat. 2 May. The Classic contest was the highest-rated 3-year-old race in the world in 2014 according to figures disclosed Tuesday by the International Federation of Horseracing Authorities. The top seven 2-year-old colts of last season on official ratings were given an entry, headed by European Juvenile Champion Belardo (Ire) (Lope de Vega {Ire}), winner of the race that has proved the best signpost to Guineas glory, the G1 Dewhurst S. ...

Veteran trainer Scott Lake was assessed a suspension of 120 days - twice what was originally reported - by the Maryland Racing Commission as the result of horses in his care testing positive for an anabolic steroid.  Mike Hopkins, the MRC's executive director, said Wednesday that the commission had clarified the penalties handed to Lake. Hopkins said that Lake received a 60-day suspension, which begins Thursday, for the positive for stanozolol in races in December at Laurel.  The Maryland positive and penalty coupled with a previous positive in Pennsylvania pushed...

A solid field of 10 drew for Saturday's G Donn H. at Gulfstream Park Wednesday. The entries are highlighted by last year's Donn winner Lea (First Samurai) who, after being sidelined for nearly a year, returned to take the GIII Hal's Hope S. in impressive fashion Jan. 10. "I'd say, he's probably coming into the Donn the same as he was last year," trainer Bill Mott said. "He's coming off a good race and I'm happy with him," Mott said. "He's good enough to be in the race, but I can't predict...

When folks of integrity in the thoroughbred industry like Fred Seitz, John Gosden, and Greg Ferraro DVM speak out to abolish race day medication, I am troubled by those who feel it is necessary to administer intravenous race day medications for a perceived advantage. I have been a breeder for over 32 years and a practicing cardiac surgeon for over 40 years and it is incomprehensible to think that race day medication will improve the breed. Clearly, the pendulum has swung for serious breeders to seek breeding stock from countries...

There were no serious injuries, equine or human, in an early-morning fire confined to a multi-purpose building at The Thoroughbred Center on Paris Pike outside of Lexington. More than 75 firefighters battled the blaze, fanned by a high winds, which broke out around 8:15 a.m. and lasted better than two hours. According to the Lexington Herald-Leader, Lexington Fire Department Major Lee Hayden said that a second alarm was circulated given the aggressive nature of the fire. The paper reported that around 9 a.m., an alarm was sounded alerting firefighters to...