Our weekly digest of recent international racing news
Breeders’ Cup Challenge latest – from Chile to California
Two races last weekend on different continents offered guaranteed fees-paid berth in the FanDuel-sponsored Breeders’ Cup Mile at Keeneland on November 5 as part of the annual ‘Win and You’re In’ Challenge series.
Three-year-old gelding Viejos Tiempos (Patricio Baeza/Javier Guajardo) landed the GP Club Hipico Falabella in Santiago on Sunday [May 29]. Then 24 hours later Count Again (Phil D’Amato/Irad Ortiz) produced a storming late rally to claim the Shoemaker Mile at Santa Anita on Monday’s Memorial Day Bank Holiday programme, where his jockey Irad Ortiz completed a four-timer also including the G1 Hollywood Gold Cup on upset winner There Goes Harvard.
The Breeders’ Cup Challenge continues in Japan on Sunday [June 5] with the G1 Yasuda Kinen at Tokyo racecourse.
Epsom Derby to be run in memory of Lester Piggott
GB: The Cazoo-sponsored Derby at Epsom on Saturday [June 4] will be run in memory of the legendary nine-time winner Lester Piggott, who died on Sunday [May 29].
Jockeys will wear black armbands on both Friday (Oaks day) and Saturday and there will be a minute’s applause at around 1.15pm on Friday when a wreath in the racing colours of Triple Crown winner Nijinsky will be laid at the statue of Piggott on the lawn. There will be another minute’s silence on Saturday at 4pm before the £1.5m Derby.
Two horses, Nations Pride and El Habeeb, have been supplemented at a cost of £75,000 to the 243rd running of the world’s senior Classic, for which a final field of 17 is headed by the Sir Michael Stoute-trained favourite Desert Crown.
Meanwhile, Breeders’ Cup winner Modern Games (Charlie Appleby/William Buick) is market leader for Sunday’s Qatar Prix du Jockey Club (French Derby) and Chantilly as the Godolphin colt bids to emulate St Mark’s Basilica, who last year completed a Classic double in France after winning the Poule d’Essai des Poulains.
Japan’s Derby winner Do Deuce set for the Arc
Japan: Do Deuce’s connections are eyeing the Qatar Prix de l’Ac de Triomphe after last year’s champion 2yo held Equinox by a neck to win the Tokyo Yushun (Japanese Derby) at Tokyo racecourse on Sunday [May 29].
Yutaka Take was landing his sixth victory in the ¥418,540,000 ($3.5m) contest after Special Week (1998), Admire Vega (1999), Tanino Gimlet (2002), Deep Impact (2005) and Kizuna (2013).
“The Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe should be a strong option for the owner and will probably be our next target,” said Take, who at 53 is the oldest jockey ever to win the Yushun. Trainer Yasuo Tomomichi also won with Makahiki (2016) and Wagnerian (2018).
Six-month cocaine ban for Fabio Branca
France: Fabio Branca, who moved from his native Italy to France this year in search of a new challenge, has been suspended for six months after twice testing positive for cocaine.
The jockey, 37, had ridden ten winners since linking up with trainer Gianluca Bietolini but was declared unfit to ride on April 1 after samples taken at Chantilly in February and Pornichet in March showed traces of the banned narcotic.
At a hearing before the France Galop stewards, Branca claimed he had been the victim of contamination after a trip to Paris with a female friend and insisted he had been clean since serving a similar ban in 2008.
But the panel ruled he had not produced any evidence to back up his explanation and said it would be asking the authority in Italy to reciprocate the penalty.
Branca rode more than 1,600 winners in Italy, including the Derby Italiano twice, but ended last year under a cloud after he served a 40-day disqualification for punching another rider.
Former NZ champ Leith Innes lands Queensland Derby – and retires on the spot
Australia: After producing what was described as one of the rides of his career to win the Queensland Derby on PInarello, jockey Leith Innes stunned the racing community by announcing his retirement from the saddle.
Innes, 44, was landing the 31st G1 success of his career in the A$1 million event at Eagle Farm in Brisbane. Other leading horses ridden by Innes include Starcraft, Ocean Park, Kawi and Sacred Falls.
“I just can’t find a better scenario than to go out a winner and winning a derby,” said Innes, who was NZ champion in 2003-04.
Elsewhere in racing …
Japan: Dual Classic heroine Stars On Earth suffers fracture in both forelegs More here
Germany: Arc winner Torquator Tasso well-beaten sixth of seven on G2 return More here
GB: Galileo enters new Hall of Fame after public vote More here
USA: Fire destroys press box and announcers booth at Suffolk Downs More here
USA: Death of leading owner-breeder Sarah Ramsay, aged 83 More here
Italy: Andrea Mezzatesta to join Monmouth Park jockey colony More here
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