Chad Brown, the Shergar Cup, Songline and Bob Baffert feature in our weekly digest of recent international racing news
Chad Brown runs four in opening G1 at Saratoga
USA: Hot off clinching a seventh consecutive training title at the Belmont spring/summer meet, Chad Brown will saddle four in the $500,000 Diana on Saturday [July 16] as he seeks his seventh victory in the first G1 of the Saratoga meet.
The #1 trainer in the TRC Global Rankings has declared Technical Analysis, Bleacker Street, Rougir and In Italian in the 1m1f turf race, which also features the Charlie Appleby-trained Creative Flair, the mount of Jamie Spencer.
Brown, who has been represented by at least two fillies in the Diana every year since 2013, said: “It’s been a race we’ve focused on for many years now since I opened my own stable. Once again, we have horses that belong in the race.”
Last week he completed the Belmont meet with a record score of 47 victories, a haul comprising 12 graded stakes including a G1 four-timer on the same weekend when Jack Christopher won the Woody Stephens, Regal Glory (Just a Game), Bleecker Street (New York) and Tribhuvan (Manhattan).
Irad Ortiz secured the leading rider title, his 19th on the circuit, with 48 wins, while Michael Dubb finished leading owner with 16 wins.
Star-studded line-up for Shergar Cup
GB: Leading jockeys from ten different nations will compete in the 2022 Dubai Duty Free Shergar Cup at Ascot on August 6 under a new format which will expand the competition to eight races with four riders on each team competing for record prize-money of £550,000.
Frankie Dettori will captain of the European team with Hayley Turner and Hollie Doyle headlining the Ladies team, the defending champions. Christophe Lemaire, Kerrin McEvoy, Rene Piechulek and Emma Jayne-Wilson feature among overseas stars.
BHA announce whip overhaul with DQs for worst offences
GB: Under radical changes to the whip rules in Britain, jockeys who exceed the threshold of seven strikes by four or more face disqualification and a doubling in the length of the suspension.
In future, use of the whip will also be limited to the backhand position only under recommendations made by an industry review panel, which have been adopted by the regulator’s board. The changes are scheduled to be implemented in the autumn with riders allowed a bedding-in period to get accustomed to the new regime.
Vet Fishman sentenced to 11 years in jail for supplying illegal drugs
USA: Florida vet Dr Seth Fishman has been jailed for 11 years by a court in New York for his involvement in the doping scandal which resulted in leading trainers Jorge Navarro and Jason Servis being charged.
Fishman, 51, was found to have supplied illegal performance enhancing drugs to hundreds of trainers, including Navarro, who was jailed for five years, over a 20-year period. Servis, who has submitted a not guilty plea, faces trial next year.
Songline to Breeders’ Cup, Stay Foolish to Arc
Japan: Songline, whose victory in the G1 Yasuda Kinen earned the filly a guaranteed start in the Breeders’ Cup Mile through the Breeders’ Cup Challenge, is likely to take up the offer.
Shunsuke Yoshida, the representative for owners Sunday Racing, told Japan’s Daily Sports: "We are positively considering running.” The filly could use the Centaur Stakes (Chukyo, September 11) as her warm-up race.
Also confirmed for another international mission was Dubai Gold Cup winner Stay Foolish who is on track to contest the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe under Christophe Lemaire. Owner Teruya Yoshida said he was likely to travel to France early to tackle the G2 Grand Prix de Deauville (August 28) first.
Aclaim to shuttle to Australia
Australia: Aclaim, the sire of 1,000 Guineas winner Cachet, will shuttle from Britain to Australia later this year where he will join the Aquis Farm roster in Queensland for a fee of A$24,200 ($16,000). The nine-year-old stallion, winner of the G1 Prix de la Foret, became champion British Based First Season Sire in 2021 while standing at the National Stud.
Baffert off the mark on return
USA: Bob Baffert marked his return from a 90-day suspension by sending out two winners at Los Alamitos, which included a victory in the Los Alamitos Derby won by High Connection. He was recording his fifth consecutive win in a race he has won seven times altogether.
For the duration of a suspension reciprocated across the country, Baffert was unable to visit his barn and had to find other trainers for his horses. The ban was imposed for Medina Spirit's failed post-race drug test after finishing first in the 2021 Kentucky Derby from which he was later disqualified.
Elsewhere in racing …
Japan: Records broken at JRHA Select Sale More here
GB: Hollie Doyle becomes first jockey to 100 More here
GB: Lord Glitters retired, aged nine More here
USA: Opening day of Del Mar meet is a sellout More here
Australia: Jockey Leah Kilner out of coma and able to stand up More here
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