Coronavirus

British Prime Minister Borris Johnson announced during a press conference Saturday evening a four-week national shutdown, set to begin Thursday, Nov. 5, as a result of the rising COVID-19 cases in England. While horseracing, and other elite sports will be able to continue behind closed doors, betting shops, which re-opened following the initial lockdown June 15, are scheduled to be among businesses closed later this week. A release issued by the British Horseracing Authority stated: "The horseracing industry has worked hard to maintain the safety of our participants and the...

Racing in France and Germany looks set to continue behind closed doors after both countries have been placed in new temporary lockdowns. The rising rates of coronavirus across Europe means that, as of midnight on Thursday, France will return to lockdown conditions seen earlier in 2020, with only essential journeys being permitted and restaurants, bars and most shops closed for all bar essential provisions. However, the country's sports minister Roxana Maracineanu has confirmed that professional sport can continue and that professional athletes are allowed to train and to travel to...

Following the news that French President Emmanuel Macron is tightening COVID-19 restrictions, Arqana announced they are considering several options for their remaining 2020 sales. A decision on new sale dates and formats will be made early next week. "We spoke with the local authorities this morning and received confirmation that the upcoming sales will have to follow a different organization from the one in place at the recent October Yearling Sale," said Arqana CEO Eric Hoyeau. "Several alternative options remain on the table and we are working hard to review...

NEWMARKET, UK—There are obviously lessons to ponder, regarding the divergent economies of British and Australian racing. But first and foremost, let's pause and give due credit to those who brought English King (GB) (Camelot {GB}) to the point where he could on Wednesday become much the most expensive colt ever sold at Europe's premier horses-in-training sale. After all, when auctioneer John O'Kelly tried to coax one last effort out of underbidder Ted Voute for lot 1153a, he told him: "There's only one chance to buy English King." But Jeremy Brummitt...

Dark Angel (Ire) (Acclamation {GB}) leads the 2021 Yeomanstown Stud roster at €60,000, as the County Kildare-based stud released their fees for next season. All fees have been reduced by 25% due to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic. The grey has enjoyed a great season, and sits eighth on the TDN European General Sires List, with Group 1 winners Battaash (Ire) and Raging Bull (Ire) on top of younger horses of the quality of G1 Prix Morny third Rhythm Master (Ire), SW Fantasy Lady (Ire) and G3 Somerville Tattersalls S. runner-up...

The public is now able to vote on the 2020 Cartier Racing Awards at www.cartierracingawards.co.uk. Forms for those wishing to vote by post will be available in the coming days in the Daily Telegraph and Racing Post. All current standings across all Cartier Award divisions are available at the Cartier Racing Awards website above. "It has been an incredible sporting season, albeit an unusual one in light of the new regulation the racing world has adapted to," said Cartier UK Managing Director Laurent Feniou. "I am truly inspired by these...

NEWMARKET, UK--It's a conundrum of the training profession: do you serve your client better by exhausting every last ounce of a horse's potential, or by preserving a degree of residual value when the time has come to cash out and restock? You see exemplary operators at both ends of that spectrum, but only rarely does anyone manage to reconcile both obligations as expertly as William Haggas did with his principal draft on the second day of the Autumn Horses-in-Training Sale at Tattersalls. Of 17 Somerville Lodge horses into the ring,...

When Lorna Chavez moved from England to the United States in 1995, the land of abundance had a surfeit of skilled participants willing and able to don helmet and boot and join the nation's ranks of exercise riders. "I started in Delaware," said Chavez, a former jockey, of her time as an exercise rider for Hall of Fame trainer Jonathan Sheppard. But that was a quarter-century ago. "Now, there aren't enough riders around," she said. "Especially good ones." And that means busy racetracks of a morning are increasingly populated with...

The catalogue for the Tattersalls December Yearling Sale, featuring a Starspangledbanner (Aus) half-sister to Group 1 winner Alcohol Free (Ire) (No Nay Never), is now online. One of 173 yearlings set to sell at Park Paddocks on Nov. 23, the half-sister to the G1 Cheveley Park S. heroine and French listed winner Alexander James (Ire) (Camelot {GB}) (lot 119) will be offered by Knockatrina House. Overall, there are full- or half-siblings to 37 group and listed winners in the catalogue, among them five Group 1/Classic winners. There are 13 yearling...

NEWMARKET, UK--A sale like this will always be rather a law unto itself. The quality on offer won't be as consistent, year to year, as a cross-section selected from each new crop for graded catalogues of younger stock. And the distribution of such quality as does appear, across a four-session auction, will be no less variable. So let's not leap to any premature conclusions about a steep decline in returns from the opening day of the Autumn Horses-in-Training at Tattersalls. The coveted Juddmonte draft, for one thing, has this time...

France extended its curfew measures from 9 p.m. to 6 a.m. to other parts of the country, including Deauville, for the next six weeks on Thursday, with another two week extension a possibility as COVID-19 cases increase. The curfew will not affect the Arqana Autumn Sales with Flat yearlings Nov. 14 and Nov. 16-18 with horses-in-training, stores and NH-bred yearlings. However, the Arqana December Breeding Stock Sale, which normally features a mix of Flat and National Hunt breeding prospects, broodmares and foals, has been retooled, as its sessions normally finish...

Kyoto played host to the 3000-metre G1 Kikuka Sho on Sunday, and Contrail (Jpn) put his name in the record books as the eighth Japanese Triple Crown Winner and only the third to take the Japanese equivalent of the St Leger while undefeated. Symboli Rudolf (Jpn) (Partholon {Ire}) first accomplished that feat in 1984 and Contrail's sire, the late Deep Impact (Jpn), was the second in 2005. In marked contrast to his earlier wins, Contrail was tested all the way to the line, with recent allowance winner, the SP Aristoteles...