Author: Sharp

Saffie Osborne has taken the throne from Hollie Doyle among Britain’s female riders

A day packed with a large part of the European elite is over, and no fewer than five Group 1 races were run.

After 21 wins in a row, Ka Ying Rising’s winning run came to an end on Saturday morning in The Everest (Gr.1) at Randwick in Sydney.

The Bent Olsen-trained Great Wish (Night Of Thunder) faces the biggest task of his life in the British Champions Sprint Stakes (Gr.1) at Ascot on Saturday afternoon.

The four-year-old Sea The Stars colt Daryz won the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe for the second year running on Sunday, and

On home soil Daryz (Sea The Stars) lived up to expectations and repeated last year’s win in the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe (Gr.1). Daryz is trained by Francis-Henri Graffard and had Mickael Barzalona in the saddle, as always.

Aidan O’Brien was the last to name the jockeys for his three runners in Europe’s biggest race, the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe (Gr.1) at Longchamp.

Norway-born William Buick was on song at Newmarket on Friday afternoon, winning first a Group 2 and then a Listed race. On the famous Rowley Mile, Talk Of New York (Wootton Bassett) finally landed his first Group win.

Japan’s Forever Young (Real Steel) lined up in the Jockey Club Gold Cup (Gr.1) at Belmont Park on Friday, and it produced a dominant victory by a good three lengths from Stars And Stripes (Not This Time). The field was down to just four runners, the others being Baeza (McKinzie) in third and Phileas Fogg (Astern) in fourth.

Rock singer Meat Loaf made the classic “Two out of three ain’t bad” famous, but “four out of five” must surely be better. And that is exactly what Irish star jockey Oisin Murphy achieved on Monday at Ffos Las in South Wales.

When Saffie Osborne, only 24, won the English St Leger (Gr.1) at Doncaster on Saturday, she became the first female jockey to win a Classic – but it was also Saffie’s first Group 1 win of any kind.

Ireland’s master trainer Aidan O’Brien landed another big-race triumph in the Irish St. Leger (Gr.1), and he underlined it by having the first three horses home. The odds-on favourite Scandinavia arrived on the back of two Group 1 wins in a row: the Gold Cup (Gr.1) during Royal Ascot week in June and the Goodwood Cup (Gr.1) in July.

More often than not it is his father Aidan O’Brien who steals the headlines, but in the oldest of all the Classics, the St Leger Stakes (Gr.1) over 2,920 metres at Doncaster, it was trainer Joseph O’Brien who landed a one-two with the outsider Highwayman ahead of Enceladus.

The respected website www.thoroughbredracing.com published its weekly world rankings a couple of days ago, and the week’s biggest climber by some distance is “our own” Bent Olsen-trained Great Wish.

The Hong Kong-based gelding Ka Ying Rising made his seasonal reappearance at Sha Tin on Sunday, and naturally he did so with victory in the HKSAR Chief Executive’s Cup (Gr.3).

One of England’s most popular horses, the former hurdler Constitution Hill, lined up in a Group race on the Flat for the first time on Saturday – and finished, for many, a disappointing fourth.

One of last winter’s biggest feel-good stories, Constitution Hill, makes his comeback at Kempton on Saturday in the Group 3 William Hill September Stakes over 2400 metres.

One of the greatest racehorses of all time, the eight-year-old gelding Romantic Warrior, has been retired. The Hong Kong Jockey Club has just made the announcement.

The five-year-old Kalpana landed her fourth Group 1 success on Thursday. The Yorkshire Oaks was a strongly contested affair for the fillies and mares, with last year’s Prix de l’Arc runner-up Minnie Hauk (Frankel) and this year’s Irish Oaks winner Johanna Walsh (Sea The Stars) among the field.

The three-year-old Frankel colt Item sprang a shock under Ireland’s Colin Keane in the Juddmonte International Stakes (Gr.1), landing his first Group 1 for trainer Andrew Balding. Expectations were high for a strongly contested Juddmonte International Stakes, and they were met in full in a hugely dramatic and thrilling race.

Racing of the very highest calibre is in prospect when a string of European Flat racing’s biggest stars go head to head in Wednesday’s Juddmonte International Stakes (Gr.1) at York.

The four-year-old Into Mischief colt Sovereignty is the week’s biggest climber in the TRC World Rankings. Saturday’s success in the Whitney Stakes (G1) at Saratoga lifts him from 15th to fifth, and he is now the leading American horse.