Sunday preview
Still one of the best of her sex on her day, Cheveley Park Stud's Inspiral (GB) (Frankel {GB}) heads back to Deauville on Sunday to bid to achieve what none other has in the G1 Prix du Haras de Fresnay-le-Buffard Jacques le Marois. So impressive here in 2022 and 2023, the John and Thady Gosden-trained 5-year-old is in unchartered territory tackling a third that the likes of Miesque, Spinning World and Palace Pier (GB) were never asked to entertain. Found out for lack of stamina in the G1 Prince of...
Sunday sees Deauville's August Festival get underway and with it Baron Edouard De Rothschild's Mqse De Sevigne (Ire) (Siyouni {Fr}) as she bids for back-to-back renewals of the G1 Prix Rothschild. Also successful in the G1 Prix Jean Romanet and in this term's G1 Prix d'Ispahan at ParisLongchamp, the Andre Fabre-trained homebred is the logical choice here having had her most recent form boosted by Horizon Dore (Fr) (Dabirsim {Fr}) at Royal Ascot. She looks a solid proposition re-opposed by Yeguada Centurion's increasingly disappointing Blue Rose Cen (Ire) (Churchill {Ire}),...
Gaining TDN Rising Star status with a five-length debut success over six furlongs at Cork last month, Juddmonte's Babouche (GB) (Kodiac {GB}) squares up against the boys in Sunday's G3 Jebel Ali Racecourse and Stables Anglesey Stakes at The Curragh. Ger Lyons tests her against another TDN Rising Star in Camille Pissarro (Ire) (Wootton Bassett {GB}), who was down the field along with Cowardofthecounty (Ire) (Kodi Bear {Ire}) in the G2 Coventry Stakes. Beaten under two lengths at Royal Ascot, Stonestreet Stables, Tracy Farmer and John Oxley's Cowardofthecounty had previously...
Sunday's racing is more low-key than we have been used to this week, but Chantilly stage a significant juvenile staging post in the G2 Prix Robert Papin in which Rockcliffe Stud's Listed Empress Stakes winner Celandine (GB) (Kingman {GB}) takes the next step in her career. With Arabian Dusk (GB) (Havana Grey {GB}) boosting that Newmarket form, the Ed Walker-trained homebred takes pole position for this six-furlong contest which also hosts Mohamed Saeed Al Shahi's course-and-distance G3 Prix du Bois scorer Arabie (GB) (Dandy Man {Ire}). Strangely exclusively contested by...
Racing with the weight of family honour on his shoulders, Juddmonte's unique commodity Kikkuli (GB) (Kingman {GB}) lines up as one of the most tantalising members of Sunday's cast for Deauville's G1 Haras d'Etreham Prix Jean Prat. Cruelly denied by pixels in Royal Ascot's G3 Jersey Stakes over this seven-furlong trip last month, the half-brother to Frankel (GB) and Noble Mission (GB) was finishing best of all in that competitive affair which rates at least the equal in terms of form to this race. While she was only fourth in...
This year's G1 1,000 Guineas took place without Ballydoyle's Opera Singer (Justify), so there is a sense of unfinished business when it comes to the pecking order of the 3-year-old fillies at present. Sunday's Tattersalls Irish 1,000 Guineas at The Curragh should answer some questions, none more so than that concerning how straight she is for a tough reintroduction having suffered that setback. So good in the G1 Prix Marcel Boussac, some will tell you that she may not have to be at 100% to win this but when it...
Naas stage some potentially key Royal Ascot pointers on Sunday, with the feature G3 Goffs Lacken S. seeing the reintroduction of AMO Racing and Giselle De Aguiar's G1 Phoenix S. and G2 Railway S. winner Bucanero Fuerte (GB) (Wootton Bassett {GB}). Failing to see out the seventh furlong of the G1 Vincent O'Brien National S. when last seen at The Curragh in September, he faces last year's G3 Marble Hill S. winner Givemethebeatboys (Ire) (Bungle Inthejungle {GB}) who has a race under his belt having won Navan's Listed Committed S....
Sunday sees a swing in the momentum towards the more meaningful Flat action of 2024, with Leopardstown--which has to survive an early-morning inspection--and ParisLongchamp staging a host of Classic trials. Ballydoyle's wheels are really set in motion at the former venue, with several of their promising 3-year-olds ready to be unleashed in the card's trio of preps including the 10-furlong G3 P.W. McGrath Memorial Ballysax S. It is in that early Derby pointer that Rosegreen's G1 Criterium de Saint-Cloud third Illinois (Ire) (Galileo {Ire}) and impressive course maiden-winning TDN Rising...
Sunday's G1 Grosser Allianz Preis von Bayern, Europe's final Group 1 contest of the season, has been reduced to a final field of four with Godolphin's likely favourite Rebel's Romance (Ire) (Dubawi {Ire}) having been withdrawn after final declarations were confirmed earlier in the week. Andre Fabre trainee Junko (GB) (Intello {Ger}), a dual Group 3 winner who ran third in this term's G1 Grand Prix de Saint-Cloud, faces a domestic team of three in the 12-furlong Munich feature, headed by recent G1 Preis von Europa heroine India (Ger) (Adlerflug...
Following the week's high-class activity, Sunday is more low-key as Deauville's August Festival wraps up with the historic G2 Grand Prix de Deauville where the Wertheimers' G3 Prix de Reux winner and G1 Grand Prix de Saint-Cloud third Junko (GB) (Intello {Ger}) sets the standard. Third last year, Gerard Augustin-Normand and the Moussac Family's Fenelon (Fr) (Fastnet Rock {Aus}) looks to have improved in the interim and comes to Normandy with confidence sky-high followings wins in Lyon Parilly's Listed Prix Bedel and Listed Grand Prix de Lyon. Classy old...
So far, the dazzling TDN Rising Star Ramatuelle (Justify) has ruled the roost among the fillies of her native France and it is time to go up the ladder again in Sunday's six-furlong G2 Prix Robert Papin at Chantilly. Successful in her opening salvo and the G3 Prix du Bois by a cumulative margin of 9 1/2 lengths at this venue, Infinity Nine Horses' Christopher Head trainee was denied in between by fellow TDN Rising Star and Listed Prix Roland de Chambure winner Beauvatier (Fr) (Lope De Vega {Ire}) in...
Outbattled at Newmarket, The Aga Khan's Tahiyra (Ire) (Siyouni {Fr}) returns to The Curragh for what could prove ample compensation in Sunday's G1 Tattersalls Irish 1000 Guineas. Unable to provide Dermot Weld with that elusive 1000 Guineas victory, the G1 Moyglare S.-winning TDN Rising Star bids to give her trainer a sixth of these. "She was a bit tired after the race, but she travelled home on the ferry and came home well and then she has picked up nicely and we've been pleased with her," her trainer said. "It...