International Racing

Another great ride, this time in the G1 Sheema Classic. Billy Buick aboard Hawkbill.

 

The G1 Dubai Turf.

 

The wonderful two mile champion Vazirabad made it 3 Dubai Cup victories in a row yesterday. They went hard early, which played into the hands of Christophe Soumillon who rode a cold race. He's back towards the tail. Green.

 

G1 Al Quoz Sprint. Charlie Appleby and James Doyle get the job done for Godolphin. Jungle Cat from the 10 gate, blue, white cap.

 

The defending Golden Shaheen champion Mind Your Biscuits put up a mighty effort to again take out the 1200m, G1 event. Number 1. He drew the inside stall and was last into the straight.

 

It looks as though AOB has one hell of a dirt horse in Mendelssohn. Although this was only the fourth running of the Derby on dirt, Mendelssohn took a massive 2.27 seconds of the record. It was a staggering win. Ryan Moore knew he had a serious horse under him. He had no fears early on as he bustled the colt out of the gates.

 

The AU$2,940,000 G1 Doncaster Mile in Sydney, run over the metric mile. Happy Clapper had the run of the race behind the leaders. All blue from the inside stall. No 3.

 

AU$2,450,000 G1 T.J. Smith Stakes. G1 1200m. Trapeze Artist was trapped deep throughout but was too good for Redzel. Yellow and black, No 12.

 

A nice filly called Midnight Bisou went into the G1 Santa Anita Oaks as a 3-5 favourite and did an outstanding job in winning. She settled second last and showed a great turn of foot to win as she liked. She's No 3 and is in the red with red and white sleeves.

 

The million dollar G1 Santa Anita Derby looked a two horse event on paper, and that's how it turned out. The favourite Justify and runner up Bolt d'Oro easily beat off the rest. The winner Justify leads throughout. I don't know if he's as good as the commentator thinks he is.

 

Oddy, it looks like there might be racing there next Friday and Saturday. The feature race on Saturday is the $100,000 Thor's Echo Stakes over 6 furlongs. Not the same quality as yesterday, but what the heck. A day out is a day out.

 

That reminds me of when I was in Cananda for a conference with a colleague. We swapped business class for economy so we could take our wives. On the day we were due to leave Pebbles was running in the Breeders Cup Turf. Just didn't have enough time to get to the race and back in time for our flight back. Tried to find a bookies and couldn't. In panic mode we went back to the hotel (already checked out) and found the maid doing our room. Persuaded her to let us watch the race on the telly. We were leaping and cheering as she streaked past the post (Pebbles that is). The maid must have thought we were mad

 

Wow, it was really nice to see Pebbles and the Queenslander Strawberry Road in action together. On watching the replay, it's easy to see how Pat Eddery on Pebbles out rode Steve Cauthen on Strawberry Road. Eddery, by driving up along the fence, went from a length behind Cauthen just before the corner, to maybe three in front of him, when the latter went four deep on the corner. If I'd been the owner, I'd have punched Cauthen in the face. Only joking

 

She did give him a good 10l start though Cyc

 

Another Winx day folks. The mare is after win number 25 in a row, the same total as Black Caviar. Her target today is the $4,000,000 G1 Queen Elizabeth Stakes run over 2000m at Randwick. As usual she'll start about the 1-5 quote.

 

I was out and about today so had to listen to the Winx race on the radio. I **** myself. Tailed off a couple of lengths behind the second last horse in running is scary stuff. $16,563,952 earnings to date.

 

Was the second horse 'Gailo Chop' the ex-French horse? Probably a fairly decent Group 2 horse if it was.