Jospeh O'Brien
A Trio of European horses running at Kentucky Downs this weekend hit the track for the first time after clearing quarantine at Churchill Downs Monday morning. Bellum Justum (Ire) (Sea The Stars {Ire}) and Stromberg (GB) (Iffraaj {GB}), who came over for Saturday's $3.1 million DK Horse Nashville Derby, and 2-year-old Black Forza (Complexity), slated for Sunday's $1-million Kentucky Downs Juvenile Sprint, went out together at 9 a.m. ET for some light exercise. They are scheduled to take a two-hour van ride to Franklin, Kentucky after training at Churchill Tuesday...
In the year of Appleby vs O'Brien, Chester's Roodeye is an apt setting for the latest gladiatorial encounter between racing's two superpowers with the G3 Boodles Chester Vase seeing another stand-off between Moulton Paddocks and Rosegreen. While the extended 12-furlong Derby trial is small potatoes in comparison with the epic clashes in the Classics and Royal Ascot, how Godolphin's exciting New London (Ire) (Dubawi {Ire}) deals with Changingoftheguard (Ire) (Galileo {Ire}) will either continue or change the current conversation. The former, who hails from the family of Masked Marvel (GB)...
Last orders are being called for the European Flat turf season. Cheltenham and Aintree have been knocking loudly on the door but there are still some important scores to settle on the level, and in Paris, where this correspondent was fortunate enough to be billeted this weekend, the major Group 1 action was conducted in a blaze of life-affirming autumnal glory that may almost sustain us until the spring. The four Group 1 races around the world on Saturday, in England, France and Australia, went to the offspring of Irish-based...
Avoiding her arch-foe Enable (GB) (Nathaniel {Ire}) at Ascot, Magical (Ire) (Galileo {Ire}) is kept to home soil to extend her awe-inspiring record in domestic races in Sunday's G1 Tattersalls Gold Cup at The Curragh. With the race open to 3-year-olds in this unusual year but drawing only one which is her stable's Armory (Ire) (Galileo {Ire}), Coolmore's mare supreme looks to have a straightforward task in accomplishing a ninth success from 12 starts in Ireland. Her latest, in the course-and-distance G1 Pretty Polly S. June 28, was arguably her...