It's sad to see a champion pull up stumps in any sport. One such champion is the two time winner of the Prix d'Amerique, Bold Eagle. In trotting a horse is not allowed to race past the season of it's tenth year. Below he competes for the second last time in a mile race, a distance much too short for him. he's in the red, black arm bands and yellow cap. He finishes third to the brilliant, rising star Jet Drole who leads throughout and wins in an extremely fast time. Bold Eagle will have his final run at Mons on August 2. The winner here is something special. Jet Drole and Face Time Bourbon are the ones to beat in anything enter. https://www.letrot.com/fr/replay-courses/2020-07-05/0202/6
And there's always another way to do the dosh. Rivercros Road Rvf checks out. (Prize money is great in the US. $27,000 for a Maiden.)
From last weekend. In Swoop winning the German Derby. An awful call though. 7 from the outside, gate 14. Maroon, blue sleeves & black cap. A white blaze down face.
Maybe Boris is still sulking about Ghiayyan in the Eclipse? Even stooped to calling some of us (me, for sure, not being paranoid either) "2-bob Johahs". I took exception to this comment because, although I have certainly never been an expert and was abroad during my working career for many months at a time, I was watching horseracing long before he ever thought about the sport. Also, spent my early days in the Kingston-on-Thames area (11-years-old and onwards) where we had a few of the best tracks in the land, namely Sandown Park, Kempton, and the dear old frying-pan track, Hurst Park, now sadly closed for many years. Epsom, Ascot, Lingfield, and Windsor not so far away either. Sorry, rant over, but he gets my goat sometimes, which he intends doing most of the time. P.S. Uncle Chuck does look good, but you're right, his opinion is a damn sight better than mine, although the Kentucky Derby has been a lucky race for me in the past. Have not looked at it this year though.
Agree, Face Time Bourbon is a brilliant trotter, Cyc, and, as you say, still young for harness racing.
Richard Hannon's Ventura Tormenta ventured to Chantilly for the G2 Darley Prix Robert Papin. It was a cracking event to watch. The plan going into the race was tp apply the blowtorch to the odds on favourite The Lir Jet. Ventura Tormenta has the inside gate and The Lir Jet, the outside stall.
He's certainly a fine horse. I suppose if Strad and Enable clashed in the Arc, Frankie would stick with the mare.
I don't know what to make of the Nassau. Fancy Blue had a nice solid win in the end, but it was a strange old race. With 2 furlongs to run you could have thrown a blanket over the entire field, which is generally not a good sign. I was beginning to wonder if there was going to be a massed finish. Thankfully things looked a bit brighter by the time they reached the line. I have feeling that many of them are now a light of another day. What to make of One Voice? Buggered if I know. I've been reading comments on other forums suggesting she needs to be dropped back to shorter races, but in the Nassau she was seen doing her best work on the line. My immediate thought was, give her an extra furlong. I have no idea what to make of her.
I joined this site in March of 2011, before that, I'd spent a few years on the old BBC606 forum. So all up, I reckon I've been closely following UK racing for about 12 years or so. In that time, I don't think I seen a better sprinter in that part of the world than Battaash. He's a serious horse.
According to US racing sites, Saratoga is often referred to as the "graveyard of champions." It proved as much yesterday when the 5s on shot, Midnight Bisou, bit the dust in the G1 Personal Ensign. The champion went down after a titanic battle with Vexatious. Midnight Bisou's rider fired in a protest claiming the winner forced him wide down the running. Stewards quickly ruled it made no difference to the result and threw the objection in the bin. The winner earns a walk up start to the Breeders' Cup Distaff.
The new trotting superstar of Europe, if not the world, Face Time Bourbon easily takes out the Grand Prix de Wallonia in Belgium. The old warrior Bold Eagle has now reached an age where the rules of racing have forced him into retirement in Europe. He can can contest races in the US though, but it thought the champ will be consigned to the breeding barn. Face Time Bourbon is No7. Bold Eagle, No3. https://www.canalturf.com/resultats-PMU/2020-08-02/mons-ghlin/216273_grand-prix-de-wallonie.html
After coming off an 18L win last time out in the G1 Acorn Stakes, Gamine makes a mess of the G1 Test Stakes. There are huge raps on the filly in the US.
The 3 year old Ramona Hill became just the 15th filly in 95 years to win the opening leg of the US Trotting Triple Crown, the $1,000,000 Hambletonion Final at the Medowlands Racetrack in New Jersey. She starts from gate 5.
Two weeks out from the 5 Year old Championships, the two power houses, Cleangame and clashed Feliciano clashed at Prix Jean-Luc Lagardère. Cleangame No11. Feliciano No7. https://www.letrot.com/fr/replay-courses/2020-08-12/7502/5