Cachet

There has been no shortage of talking points at Royal Ascot this week but, perhaps the most controversial incident of them all came in the opening race on Thursday, when Paul Hanagan received a 10-day careless riding ban for veering halfway across the track en route to victory in the G2 Norfolk S. aboard The Ridler (GB) (Brazen Beau {Aus}). From that controversy to another forgettable afternoon's work for Frankie Dettori, out of luck aboard Stradivarius (Ire) (Sea The Stars {Ire}) in the G1 Gold Cup and The Queen's 2-5...

Homebreds hold the upper hand in the fillies' Classic, but the Arqana Deauville Select Yearling Sale, delayed from August and renamed in the first year of the pandemic, is well represented with graduates at ParisLongchamp on Sunday. Notably, Blue Diamond Stud bought the dams of both Mangoustine (Fr) and Sicilian Defense (GB) on the same day at the Arqana December Sale of 2019.   ROSACEA (IRE), Soldier Hollow (GB)--Relizane (GB) (Zamindar) Owner/Breeder: Haras De La Perelle Trainer: Stephane Wattel Pedigree insight: She is the third foal out of Relizane (GB)...

Trainer George Boughey told At The Races Friday that he would attempt the English-French Guineas double with G1 QIPCO 1000 Guineas heroine Cachet (Ire) (Aclaim {Ire}). The 'TDN Rising Star' will travel to ParisLongchamp for the G1 Poule d'Essai des Pouliches on May 15. The race comes just 14 days after her English Guineas win. Sunday, after the Guineas, her trainer George Boughey said the filly would be pointed to the June 17 G1 Coronation S. at Ascot for her next start, her next step on her way to a...

For weeks before the Guineas meeting there will have been talk about the ante-post favourites, the big stables, the rich and famous owners. There will have been acres of press about the betting markets and the numbers and every single journalist will have tried to squeeze some clue out of the trainers, who don't want to give any clues. In some strange way, the horse can get lost in all this. I mean the horse in general--not a single Classic contender, but all the horses, the roughly 2,500 Thoroughbreds who...

The first Classics of the year are in the book: four in total, in Britain and Italy. Charlie Appleby sends out major winners with such metronomic regularity that it is easy to forget that there was a time when the Godolphin blue silks were a scarcity in Classic fields.  Having gone so close in last year's 2000 Guineas with Master Of The Seas (Ire) (Dubawi {Ire}), who was narrowly denied by the Jim Bolger-trained Poetic Flare (Ire) (Dawn Approach {Ire}), Appleby left nothing to chance this year when aiming both...

It is hard to ignore George Boughey at the moment. In only his second full season with a training licence, the 29-year-old is seventh in the British trainers' list by number of winners on 44 for the season. Most impressive of all is his strike-rate of 28%. Of trainers to have had more than 100 runners, only Charlie Appleby ranks higher on 30%, for his 36 winners. But Boughey's most pleasing moment of the season so far came not from a winner but through the superbly gritty run of his...