Victorious

There's a change to the usual format this week as we focus on the crème de la crème of the two-year-olds, looking forward to some significant clashes in store at Royal Ascot next week. Timeform's highest-rated juvenile heading into Royal Ascot is the unbeaten G3 Marble Hill Stakes hero Great Barrier Reef (No Nay Never), who appears to have everything that you could wish to find in a potential two-year-old winner at this meeting. For a start, Great Barrier Reef is by No Nay Never, the most prolific sire of...

5.10 Naas, Mdn, 2yo, f, 5f 205yT LIVENKA (GB) (Bated Breath {GB}) is an important Juddmonte newcomer for the Ger Lyons stable as a half-sister to their Phoenix Stakes heroine Babouche (Kodiac) and her triple Group-winning full-sibling Zarinsk. Having won two of the last six renewals of this maiden, the yard obviously prioritises this, as does Aidan O'Brien, whose four recent winners include the subsequent Cheveley Park Stakes heroine Fairyland. He is represented this time by Victorious (Ire) (Wootton Bassett {GB}), a half-sister to last year's G3 Staffordstown Stud Stakes...

'TDN Rising Star' MANAMA GOLD (f, 3, Star Guitar--Charged Cotton, Dehere) remained perfect with a 1 1/4-length tally in the AED700,000 G3 UAE Oaks over the closing Mizzyaan (Justify) at Meydan Racecourse on Friday. It was the first stakes win for the chestnut, who covered the 1900-metre trip in 2:00.81. In charge from the bell, as none of her five rivals seemed overly interested in picking up the baton, Manama Gold was always going along at an easy clip while staying fairly close to the rail past the clubhouse turn...

8th-CD, $120K, Msw, 2yo, 7f, 4:18 p.m. Expectations are understandably high for HALL OF FAME (Gun Runner) who brought a top-six price as a yearling at last year's Saratoga Sale with a final bid of $1.4m from Coolmore's M.V. Magnier. Unraced dam Flag Day, from the family of GSW Lady Diby (Grand Slam) and MGISW Diversify (Bellamy Road), also dropped Hall of Fame's yearling full-brother who RNA'd for $725,000 as a yearling at the same Saratoga Sale earlier this year. Racing for Steve Asmussen, Hall of Fame put up a...

Salute the Soldier (Ger) (Sepoy {Aus}) captured the second group race of his career in the G2 Al Maktoum Challenge Round 2 at Meydan on Thursday. His win interrupted a Godolphin streak, as the royal blue was first past the post in three of the five races carded for Thoroughbreds on the day. The Alan Spence-bred settled in a tracking third as Capezzano (Bernardini) showed the way on the front end. However, Salute the Soldier sidled up to the pacesetter's outside and stuck his neck in front late on the...