Coral-Eclipse Stakes

Benvenuto Cellini Heads Derby Confirmations; Calandagan Remains in Coronation Cup

Forty-one colts remain in contention for the £2 million Betfred Derby following Tuesday's latest scratching stage, with a handful of colts trained by Aidan O'Brien heading the market. Top among them is Benvenuto Cellini, a son of Frankel and the Breeders' Cup winner Newspaperofrecord who will make his seasonal debut in Wednesday's G3 Boodles Chester Vase. Of the 41 remaining entries, 21 are trained in Ireland - 17 by O'Brien and the other four trained by his son, Joseph, who won the Derby twice as a jockey aboard Camelot and...

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'Class Written All Over Him': Guy Harwood Remembers Dancing Brave, 40 Years On From His Dazzling Classic Season

Year in, year out we can appreciate the best horses of each generation but how often are we granted the privilege to witness one whose talent is so immense that his name will echo down the decades?  Those who made their way to Newmarket's traditional opening meeting 40 years ago likely came away with a favourable impression of Dancing Brave's win in the Craven Stakes but they could hardly have dared to dream of what was to come. For Guy Harwood, however, that dream was already alive, even on that...

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Ombudsman and Estrange Set to Bolster Night Of Thunder's Lead

Night Of Thunder currently sits at the top of the sire rankings for Britain and Ireland and, in a year in which he has already been represented by a first Classic winner in Desert Flower, his position could well be strengthened after Saturday with two other star performers lining up at Sandown and Haydock. Coral's sponsorship of the Eclipse Stakes reaches its 50th anniversary this year and the Group 1 contest, which has a roll of honour including such great names as Mill Reef, Sadler's Wells, Giant's Causeway and Enable,...

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Eclipse Prize-Money Boosted to £1m

The Coral-Eclipse Stakes, the highlight of Sandown's Flat season, will this year be run for a total prize fund of £1 million, making it the eighth race in Britain to offer prize-money into seven figures and the most valuable ever staged at the Surrey track. Last year's race carried prize-money of £750,000. Sandown Park, part of the Jockey Club's portfolio of racecourses, celebrates its 150th anniversary in 2025, a year which also sees Coral mark 50 years of sponsorship the Group 1 feature, making it the longest-running Group race sponsorship...

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John Magnier: 'His clothes are off and he's in the bed, so it's up to him'

John Magnier was in mischievous form at Sandown after he and his wife Sue had joined the wider Coolmore team for celebratory photographs with their Derby and Eclipse winner City Of Troy.  It has been well documented how important this colt is to the operation: the European champion two-year-old of 2023, he is by the Triple Crown winner Justify, who was recruited at vast expense to stand at Coolmore's Ashford Stud in Kentucky. For that stallion to prove himself adept at siring top-class runners on both dirt and turf would...

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Buick Set to Partner Eclipse Favourite Emily Upjohn

John and Thady Gosden had some of their star fillies on the July Course early on Saturday morning with their former stable jockey William Buick replacing Frankie Dettori on Emily Upjohn (GB) for the first time ahead of their engagement in next Saturday's G1 Coral-Eclipse S. The Coronation Cup winner was joined by her fellow Epsom heroine, the Oaks winner Soul Sister (GB) (Frankel {GB}), and they were led in their mile-long gallop by last season's G2 Park Hill Fillies' S. winner Mimikyu (GB) (Dubawi {Ire}).  Emily Upjohn, whose sire...

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