Auguste Rodin

Royal Ascot was tremendous in myriad ways. Sun up, crowd up, and a spread of results which drew in some of the world's biggest owners and trainers alongside syndicates and smaller yards. Then on Sunday morning came the news that QIPCO is to significantly reduce its sponsorship of British racing from next year. British Champions Day will still be run in its name, and the company owned by Sheikhs Hamad and Fahad Al Thani will remain as an official partner of Ascot racecourse, but Newmarket's Guineas meeting, Ascot's King George...

There was no shortage of talking points to unpick from Wednesday. From Sands Of Mali bagging a breakthrough winner at the royal meeting to Karl Burke and Wathnan racing enjoying a change of fortune and even Ryan Moore coming out of his shell to defend Auguste Rodin, the action on and off the track did not disappoint.  Sands Of Mali Puts His Name In Lights It proved to be a big day for Ballyhane Stud's Sands Of Mali (Fr), who became the first of the freshman sires to get off...

The big rematch between Auguste Rodin (Ire) (Deep Impact {Jpn}) and White Birch (GB) (Ulysses {Ire}) is on as the pair are set to line out in the Prince Of Wales's S. at Royal Ascot on Wednesday. Last season's dual Derby winner Auguste Rodin had the edge in those Classic contests, but it was John Murphy's White Birch who accounted for Aidan O'Brien's colt in the G1 Tattersalls Gold Cup at the Curragh last month. Nevertheless, the bookmakers have the Ballydoyle runner as their favourite at odds of 7-4, expecting...

EPSOM, UK -- This is what vindication looks like: a usually composed superstar trainer with a hint of tears in his eyes, his chest heaving, the emotion a bit too much. City Of Troy was Aidan O'Brien's 10th Derby winner - but this one felt different. It would be ludicrous to say his credibility was on the line, but his words certainly were, and perhaps his judgment, at least in relation to last year's No 1 two-year-old, whose balloon had popped three furlongs out in the 2,000 Guineas. O'Brien has...

If you are a racing tragic, and I'd like to think that most TDN readers fall into this celebrated bracket, it is impossible to have a day off at the moment. Trials, Classics, they come thick and fast in these heady weeks of spring. We've waited winterlong, starved of any meaningful action, and now it's hard not to feel a little queasy at the veritable feast of racing which is set before us, course after course after course. There's barely even room for the Cartmel Sticky Toffee Pudding Maiden Hurdle. ...

TIPPERARY, Ireland -- Aidan O'Brien walks into the semi-covered ride, shakes hands with each member of the assembled press pack and apologises for the rain. Within his private fiefdom of Ballydoyle there is plenty that he can control, particularly via the earpieces on each of his 50 riders currently warming up in front of him, but the weather isn't one of them. The rain fell on his parade at Newmarket just over a week ago when the longed-for procession of City Of Troy (Justify) in the 2,000 Guineas failed to...

Fifty-eight entries for the Betfred Oaks on May 31 have been revealed, led by last season's champion juvenile filly Opera Singer (Justify). The G1 Prix Marcel Boussac winner remains the market leader despite the recent announcement by her trainer Aidan O'Brien that she may miss the 1,000 Guineas at Newmarket following a minor setback in training.  Her stable-mate Ylang Ylang (GB) (Frankel {GB}) is also among the 13 fillies to have been entered from Ballydoyle. Irish trainers Noel Meade, Jim Bolger and Dermot Weld have one entry apiece while Paddy...

I love Paris in the springtime, sang Ella Fitzgerald, and I'm pretty sure it was a thinly-veiled reference to her secret passion for heavy ground three-year-old maidens at Saint-Cloud. What Classic clues may we glean there? Well, maybe none. But I liked the look of Narkez (Fr), who gave his rivals a six-length walloping in the Prix Comrade last Tuesday, picking up where he left off after winning at Clairefontaine last October. Bred by Nurlan Bizakov under his Sumbe banner, the colt represents that magic Siyouni (Fr)-Galileo (Ire) cross, though...

On a day where connections worldwide were treated to the very best racing in the UAE, Rebel's Romance (Ire) (Dubawi {Ire}) ran out a shock 28-1 winner of the G1 Longines Dubai Sheema Classic at Meydan for Charlie Appleby and William Buick. It was a race of contrasting emotions for two of the powerhouse stables in Europe as Aidan O'Brien's dual Derby winner Auguste Rodin (Jpn) (Deep Impact {Jpn}), sent off a 5-4 favourite, trailed home in last. But the day belonged to Rebel's Romance, who was placed prominently by...

Class came to the fore in the G2 Dubai Gold Cup as Tower Of London (Ire) (Galileo {Ire}) ran out an authoritative winner for Aidan O'Brien and Ryan Moore. A brother to St Leger hero Capri (Ire), Tower Of London came into the Group 2 contest at Meydan off the back of a cheeky victory in the G3 Longines Red Sea Turf H. in Saudi Arabia. Tower Of London built on that victory to post a career best at odds of 2-1, storming home from the rear to run out...

DUBAI, UNITED ARAB EMIRATES -- Twelve of the world's top middle-distance dirt horses representing a half-dozen racing nations will clash in Saturday's $12-million G1 Dubai World Cup at sprawling Meydan Racecourse in Dubai. The fields and post positions for the evening's four non-Group 1 races--including the Dubai Kahayla Classic for the Purebred Arabians--were announced Monday, while stalls for the five elite-level contests were allotted during a ceremony Wednesday evening emceed by Rishi Persad and Laura King at the Armani Hotel at the iconic Burj Khalifa in Central Dubai. Ushba Tesoro...

DUBAI, UNITED ARAB EMIRATES -- Headed by the first appearance from the seven World Cup night horses from the yard of Aidan O'Brien, there was a buzz of activity on both the dirt track and turf course Tuesday morning at Meydan proper as well as back on the Tapeta track a couple of furlongs down the road. The Ballydoyle septet slowly ambled out of the tunnel near the 1600-metre starting point on the the dirt surface, led by G3 Red Sea Turf H. hero Tower of London (Ire) (Galileo {Ire},...