Ascot

The 2024 Goffs Irish Champions Sale, slated for Leopardstown during the Irish Champions Festival, has been postponed due to a lack of suitable stabling, the sales company announced on Thursday. Instead, horses will be re-routed to the second edition of the Goffs QIPCO British Champions Day Sale at Ascot on Oct. 19. Last term, Rogue Lightning (Ire) (Kodiac {GB}) sold to Richard Brown on behalf of Wathnan Racing for £1 million at the latter sale. Goffs Group chief executive Henry Beeby said, "It became apparent this morning that we would...

The upcoming Horses-in-Training Sales series, to be held at Leopardstown, Ascot, Doncaster and Kildare, was announced by Goffs on Thursday. The boutique Goffs Champions Sale returns to Leopardstown as the opening event of the Irish Champions Festival on Saturday, Sept. 14. First held in 2014, the 10-year average is €188,000, with a median of €150,000 and a clearance rate of 69% for catalogues ranging between four and 12 lots. Horses have sold for €500,000, €470,000, €450,000 and €300,000 at previous renewals. The second boutique sale will be the Goffs QIPCO...

A total of 227 entries have been received for the five Group contests scheduled to take place on QIPCO British Champions Day at Ascot, it was announced on Tuesday. This is the largest number since 2018 and includes a record 56-strong entry for the G1 QIPCO Champion Stakes, the feature race on the card slated for Saturday, October 19. The 56 horses entered for the Champion Stakes have won 37 Group 1 races between them, with Auguste Rodin (Ire) (Deep Impact {Jpn}) boasting the most decorated CV as a six-time...

Multiple Classic winner Seamie Heffernan, Royal Ascot-winning teenager Billy Loughnane and French Group 1 scorer Marie Vélon are among the 12 jockeys today confirmed to ride in Saturday's Dubai Duty Free Shergar Cup at Ascot. Nine countries will be represented across the four teams, while new ground is broken this year with an equal number of male and female jockeys for the first time in the history of the Shergar Cup. Vélon, the first French female jockey to win a French Group 1 race with her victory in the 2022...

With more on his mind than most of us could bear, the BBC's racing commentator texted his understudy at Ascot with a few technical tips about the box he would be calling the big race from. On King George day, Darren Owen wasn't expecting help from John Hunt. Who would? On 9 July - 18 days earlier, John's wife Carol, 61, and their daughters Hannah and Louise, 28 and 25, had been fatally injured at their home in Bushey, Hertfordshire. John and his daughter Amy were in the vortex of...

Virtually ignored ahead of Saturday's G1 King George VI and Queen Elizabeth QIPCO Stakes, Philip Baron Von Ullmann's Goliath (Ger) (Adlerflug {Ger}--Gouache {Ger}, by Shamardal) had a sting in the tail for his revered fellow contenders as he dominated the Ascot feature. Only second in the course-and-distance G2 Hardwicke Stakes at the Royal meeting, the Francis-Henri Graffard-trained 4-year-old thrived off the strong pace set by the Ballydoyle contingent and was travelling notably powerfully under Christophe Soumillon straightening for home. Committed 1 1/2 furlongs out, the 25-1 shot bounded clear for...

Bouncing back from her disappointing effort in the G3 Musidora Stakes, George Strawbridge's Friendly Soul (GB) (Kingman {GB}--In Clover {GB}, by Inchinor {GB}) relished the drop to a mile to boss Ascot's G3 Longines Valiant Stakes on Saturday. Only seventh in that York Oaks trial in May, the homebred half-sister to the group 1 winners With You (GB) (Dansili {GB}), Call The Wind (GB) (Frankel {GB}) and We Are (Ire) (Dansili {GB}) who had previously impressed when taking Newmarket's Listed Pretty Polly Stakes earlier that month was soon in front...

Compensating for her agonising reversal in the Royal meeting's G3 Albany Stakes, Al Shaqab Racing's acquisition Simmering (GB) (Too Darn Hot {GB}--Cashla Bay {GB}, by Fastnet Rock {Aus}) got up late to break her maiden in style in Saturday's G3 Princess Margaret Stakes back at Ascot. Third on debut at York behind the high-class Arabie (GB) (Dandy Man {Ire}) prior to her standard-setting Albany performance behind Fairy Godmother (Ire) (Night Of Thunder {Ire}), the 11-8 favourite was held up early by Ryan Moore who had already ridden the opening race's...

Observations on the European Racing Scene turns the spotlight on the best European races of the day, highlighting well-pedigreed horses early in their careers, horses of note returning to action and young runners that achieved notable results in the sales ring. Saturday's Observations features a 1.5-million half to crack sprinter Battaash (Ire) (Dark Angel {Ire}). 13.15 Ascot, Mdn, £50,000, 2yo, c/g, 6fT AL MISBAR (IRE) (Blue Point {Ire}) is a key member of the "Crocker Bulteel" Maiden that opens the King George card, being Godolphin's 1.5million gns Tattersalls October Book...

Francis-Henri Graffard may have had to contend with the disappointment of retiring his Classic-winning filly Rouhiya (Fr), but he still has much to look forward to in the coming weeks, not least another trip to Ascot with Goliath (Ger) (Adlerflug {Ger}) for Saturday's G1 King George VI and Queen Elizabeth Stakes. Owned by his breeder Baron Philip von Ullmann of Gestut Schlenderhan, the four-year-old was last seen running second to Isle Of Jura (Ire) in the G2 Hardwicke Stakes. Following his win in the G3 Prix d'Hedouville in early May,...

Seventy years ago, Queen Elizabeth II won the fourth running of the race named in honour of her parents, the King George VI and Queen Elizabeth Stakes, at her own racecourse, Ascot. Aureole was a hugely appropriate winner, having been bred by King George VI in 1950, two years prior to the monarch's death. The horse's victory was widely welcomed, not least because he had been beaten a year earlier by his conqueror in the Derby, Pinza.  The 'King George' provides ones of the key pivot points in the season,...

Aidan O'Brien is responsible for five of the 11 possible runners in Saturday's G1 King George VI And Queen Elizabeth Qipco Stakes following Monday's confirmation stage, with Auguste Rodin (Ire) set to lead the Ballydoyle team into battle at Ascot as he tries to atone for his disappointing effort in the corresponding race 12 months ago. A four-time winner at the top level as a three-year-old when landing the Derby, Irish Derby, Irish Champion Stakes and Breeders' Cup Turf, Auguste Rodin ran one of his lesser races that season when...