Luxor Cafe

Group winner Luxor Café (American Pharoah) and two compatriots landed at Japan's Kansai International Airport on St Patrick's Day, Tospo Keiba reported on Tuesday. Originally slated to run in the G1 Dubai World Cup at Meydan on March 28, the full-brother to dual G1 February Stakes hero Café Pharoah will instead look to targets closer to home, as the Iranian conflict continues. One of three horses to return to the Land of the Rising Sun on Tuesday morning, he was joined by Shin Forever (Complexity) and G2 UAE Derby hope...

Saturday, King Abdulaziz (Riyadh), Saudi Arabia, post time: 20:40, SAUDI CUP-G1, $20,000,000, NH/SH4yo/up, 1800m Field: Banishing (Ghostzapper), Bishops Bay (Uncle Mo), Forever Young (Jpn) (Real Steel {Jpn}), Haqeet (Arrogate), Luxor Cafe (American Pharoah), Mhally (GB) (Sergei Prokofiev), Nevada Beach (Omaha Beach), Nysos (Nyquist), Rattle N Roll (Connect), Star Of Wonder (Uncle Mo), Sunrise Zipangu (Jpn) (Kizuna {Jpn}), Thundersquall (GB) (Dubawi {Ire}), Tumbarumba (Oscar Performance), Ameerat Alzamaan (GB) (Ghaiyyath {Ire}). TDN Analysis: Forever Young will be a prohibitive favourite to become the first to go back-to-back in the world's richest race....

Saturday, King Abdulaziz (Riyadh), Saudi Arabia, post time: 20:40, SAUDI CUP-G1, $20,000,000, NH/SH4yo/up, 1800m Field: Banishing (Ghostzapper), Bishops Bay (Uncle Mo), Forever Young (Jpn) (Real Steel {Jpn}), Haqeet (Arrogate), Luxor Cafe (American Pharoah), Mhally (GB) (Sergei Prokofiev), Nevada Beach (Omaha Beach), Nysos (Nyquist), Rattle N Roll (Connect), Star Of Wonder (Uncle Mo), Sunrise Zipangu (Jpn) (Kizuna {Jpn}), Thundersquall (GB) (Dubawi {Ire}), Tumbarumba (Oscar Performance), Ameerat Alzamaan (GB) (Ghaiyyath {Ire}). TDN Analysis: Forever Young will be a prohibitive favourite to become the first to go back-to-back in the world's richest race....

Saturday, King Abdulaziz (Riyadh), Saudi Arabia, post time: 20:40, SAUDI CUP-G1, $20,000,000, NH/SH4yo/up, 1800m Field: Banishing (Ghostzapper), Bishops Bay (Uncle Mo), Forever Young (Jpn) (Real Steel {Jpn}), Haqeet (Arrogate), Luxor Cafe (American Pharoah), Mhally (GB) (Sergei Prokofiev), Nevada Beach (Omaha Beach), Nysos (Nyquist), Rattle N Roll (Connect), Star Of Wonder (Uncle Mo), Sunrise Zipangu (Jpn) (Kizuna {Jpn}), Thundersquall (GB) (Dubawi {Ire}), Tumbarumba (Oscar Performance), Ameerat Alzamaan (GB) (Ghaiyyath {Ire}). Saturday, King Abdulaziz (Riyadh), Saudi Arabia, post time: 19:10, NEOM TURF CUP (Presented By HOWDEN)-G1, $3,000,000, NH/SH4yo/up, 2100mT Field: Alohi Alii...

Sunday, Chukyo, Japan, post time: 15:40, CHAMPIONS CUP-G1, ¥232,860,000, 3yo/up, 1800m Field: William Barows (Jpn) (Mikki Isle {Jpn}), W Heart Bond (Jpn) (Kizuna {Jpn}), Meisho Hario (Jpn) (Pyro), Seraphic Call (Jpn) (Henny Hughes), Helios (Jpn) (Orfevre {Jpn}), Hagino Alegrias (Jpn) (Kizuna {Jpn}), Ramjet (Jpn) (Majestic Warrior), Wilson Tesoro (Jpn) (Kitasan Black {Jpn}), Outrange (Jpn) (Regalo {Jpn}), Tenka Jo (Jpn) (Thunder Snow {Ire}), Sixpence (Jpn) (Kizuna {Jpn}), Narukami (Jpn) (Thunder Snow {Ire}), Sunrise Zipangu (Jpn) (Kizuna {Jpn}), Peptide Nile (Jpn) (King Kamehameham {Jpn}), Perriere (Jpn) (Henny Hughes), Luxor Café (American Pharoah)....

Sunday, Chukyo, Japan, post time: 15:40, CHAMPIONS CUP-G1, ¥232,860,000, 3yo/up, 1800m Field: William Barows (Jpn) (Mikki Isle {Jpn}), W Heart Bond (Jpn) (Kizuna {Jpn}), Meisho Hario (Jpn) (Pyro), Seraphic Call (Jpn) (Henny Hughes), Helios (Jpn) (Orfevre {Jpn}), Hagino Alegrias (Jpn) (Kizuna {Jpn}), Ramjet (Jpn) (Majestic Warrior), Wilson Tesoro (Jpn) (Kitasan Black {Jpn}), Outrange (Jpn) (Regalo {Jpn}), Tenka Jo (Jpn) (Thunder Snow {Ire}), Sixpence (Jpn) (Kizuna {Jpn}), Narukami (Jpn) (Thunder Snow {Ire}), Sunrise Zipangu (Jpn) (Kizuna {Jpn}), Peptide Nile (Jpn) (King Kamehameham {Jpn}), Perriere (Jpn) (Henny Hughes), Luxor Café (American Pharoah)....

The Champions Cup on dirt has attracted a field of 16, and Narukami (Thunder Snow) holds pride of place in the advance markets on the back of his Listed Japan Dirt Classic victory in October. Chukyo's 1800-metre affair, a rare Japanese top-level event on dirt, is also the site of the favourite's only loss in six starts. Assistant trainer Hiroyuki Yamazaki said of the Godolphin homebred who is booked in post 12 with Keita Tosaki aboard, "Since the Kozukata Sho, he's been a bit tense when taking the bit and...

The 2026 Japan Road to the Kentucky Derby kicks off Saturday afternoon with the running of the $196,541 Cattleya Stakes, an allowance race over the one-turn 1600-meter configuration at Tokyo Racecourse. And if the ante-post market is anything to go by, horses bred in and/or sourced out of American bloodstock markets should have a giant say in the outcome with the first Saturday in May just over five months away. The cat was very much out of the bag when Magna Victor (Maxfield) made his first trip to the races...

The field for the GI Kentucky Derby, ranked in "likeliest winner" order. 1) JOURNALISM (c, Curlin--Mopotism, by Uncle Mo). O-Bridlewood Farm, Don Alberto Stable, Eclipse Thoroughbred Partners, Elayne Stables 5 LLC, LaPenta, Robert V., Magnier, Mrs. John, Smith, Derrick and Tabor, Michael B.; B-Don Alberto Corporation (KY); T-Michael W. McCarthy. Sales history: $825,000 Ylg '23 FTSAUG. Lifetime record: GISW, 5-4-0-1, $638,880. Last start: WON Apr. 5 GI Santa Anita Derby. Journalism is the legitimate and deserving favorite. He checks many of the Derby desirability boxes by being a big, long-striding...

Koichi Nishikawa's Luxor Café (American Pharoah) and Junko Kondo's Admire Daytona (Jpn) (Drefong) turned in works during the 7:15-7:30 a.m. EST training period reserved for Kentucky Derby and Oaks entrants over a fast track Tuesday morning at Churchill Downs. Trained by Noriyuki Hori, Luxor Café worked five furlongs in 1:02.40 with jockey Joao Moreira aboard. Fractions on the work were :13.40, :26, :37.80 and 1:02.40. "I was asked to canter a lap as a warm-up," Moreira said. "Then I galloped him from the five-furlong pole. It was just an easy work,...

Equibase has enhanced the foreign past performance data with internal points of call information and short comments for the expected Japanese runners in the Kentucky Derby, the company said in a press release on Friday. Luxor Cafe (American Pharoah) has made six career starts in Japan--at Tokyo, Sapporo, and Nakayama racecourses--while Admire Daytona (Jpn) (Drefong) made five starts at Tokyo Racecourse prior to his win in the G2 UAE Derby at Meydan. "Our track and field team spent considerable time gathering race footage then charting the points of call and...

by Sue Finley and Dan Ross Few commercial sectors appear immune from the current administration's sweeping import tariffs, and that includes horse racing's biggest Saturday of the year, with Japan's participants in the GI Kentucky Derby potential targets of the trade war. Stressing a general air of uncertainty surrounding the tariff specifics, Matt Haug, general manager of International Racehorse Transport (IRT), said that, as he and his customs broker understood the situation, the Japanese-trained Luxor Cafe (American Pharoah) is exempt from any tariff being a U.S.-bred runner. For foreign-bred horses--like...