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Month: October 2020
Stradivarius Will Try To Regain His Crown In British Champions Long Distance Cup
The world's top rated stayer, Stradivarius stands out among the 15 entries still in the mix for the £300,000 (approximately US$350,000) QIPCO British Champions Long Distance Cup on Saturday, Oct. 17.
The exceptional 6-year-old, bred and owned by Bjorn Nielsen, won the Qatar Goodwood Cup for a record fourth time at Goodwood in July, having landed the Gold Cup at Royal Ascot for the third time the previous month.
Trained by John Gosden, Stradivarius has won a record 13 races that fall under the QIPCO British Champions Series umbrella, including the QIPCO British Champions Long Distance Cup in 2018. He has run 13 times over two miles or further and been beaten just twice – when a length third to Order Of St George as a 3-year-old in the 2017 QIPCO British Champions Long Distance Cup and when pipped a nose by Kew Gardens in last year's riveting renewal.
The opposition to Stradivarius is headed by two-time Comer Group International Irish St Leger winner Search For A Song. She will be having her first run over two miles but has hinted she will stay and her trainer, Dermot Weld, has been responsible for two previous Long Distance Cup winners in Rite Of Passage (2012) and Forgotten Rules (2014).
Andrew Balding has two possible challengers in Spanish Mission, fluent winner of the Doncaster Cup on his latest start, and the mud-loving Morando, whose exploits last season included an eight-length drubbing of Kew Gardens in the Boodles Diamond Ormonde Stakes at Chester.
Balding said: “Spanish Mission was very impressive in the Doncaster Cup last time but I would have thought he would be effective from a mile and a half to an extended two miles. He's a horse who historically has not wanted the ground too soft, so that's a concern for him. If the ground got pretty testing, we'd have to think twice about running him.
“Morando, on the other hand, loves it when the mud is flying. It would be a new venture going two miles with him but the way he's shaped in his races in the last two seasons suggests that two miles is well within his compass now and he goes well at Ascot.”
Fujaira Prince, trained by Roger Varian, was returning from a year off when an emphatic winner of the Copper Horse Handicap at Royal Ascot in June and followed up in the Sky Bet Ebor at York two months later. He chased home Search For A Song in the Irish St Leger last time out.
Aidan O'Brien has won the race three times with Fame And Glory (2011), Order Of St George (2017) and Kew Gardens (2019). This time he could be represented by Sovereign, winner of last year's Dubai Duty Free Irish Derby; Broome, who was a close fourth in last year's Investec Derby; and Dawn Patrol, third in this year's Irish Derby.
The post Stradivarius Will Try To Regain His Crown In British Champions Long Distance Cup appeared first on Horse Racing News | Paulick Report.
‘Once In A Lifetime Horse’ Gunnevera Retired, Stud Plans Pending
Trainer Antonio Sano told the Daily Racing Form this week that Gunnevera has officially been retired from racing. Salomon Del Valle's 6-year-old son of Dialed In fractured a left hind leg while training last summer, and has not been able to make it back to the races.
Over the course of his 21-race career, Gunnevera earned over $5.5 million. He took his trainer to the Kentucky Derby in 2017, finishing seventh. Gunnevera won six races and hit the board in a total of six Grade 1 events, including the 2019 Dubai World Cup (third), the 2018 Breeders' Cup Classic (second), and the 2018 Pegasus World Cup (third).
“His race in the Breeders' Cup was the most special for me,” Sano told drf.com. “It was very emotional, very exciting. One more second and he wins the race. He's a once in a lifetime horse who I can't thank enough for what he's also meant to my career.”
Stallion plans have not yet been confirmed for Gunnevera, but Sano hopes he can begin his breeding career early in 2021.
Read more at the Daily Racing Form.
The post ‘Once In A Lifetime Horse’ Gunnevera Retired, Stud Plans Pending appeared first on Horse Racing News | Paulick Report.
Love Likely Done For The Year
This season’s dual Classic-winning filly Love (Ire) (Galileo {Ire}) is likely to bypass the Breeders’ Cup and is probably done for the year, trainer Aidan O’Brien said on Tuesday. Love was scratched from her last intended target, the G1 Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe, when the ground came up soft.
“I don’t think Love will go to the Breeders’ Cup,” O’Brien said. “At the moment we’re thinking that she’s had a busy enough time and we trained her hard for the Arc. Obviously that was her big target in the autumn and she was trained hard for it, and with a view to keeping her in training next year I think the lads are maybe leaving her for this year. So there’s a strong possibility that she won’t run anymore this year.”
O’Brien also reported leading Derby candidate High Definition (Ire) (Galileo {Ire}) to be done for the year.
“The plan always with High Definition was to give him two runs. That was his maiden and the Beresford, and we haven’t changed off of that,” the trainer said of the unbeaten colt. “The plan was then to bring him back and train him for the Classics next year. We’re very happy with the way he has come out of his last race and that’s the way we are looking with him next year.”
Listed Chesham S. and G2 Vintage S. scorer Battleground (War Front), meanwhile, is likely headed to the GI Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf at Keeneland. That is the same course over which his dam, the G1 Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe winner Found (Ire) (Galileo {Ire}), won the GI Breeders’ Cup Turf in 2015.
“Obviously he didn’t go to the Dewhurst, so the plan at the moment is we’re thinking of going to the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf with him,” O’Brien said. “He seems to be in good form at the moment.”
The post Love Likely Done For The Year appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.
