Battleground

Group 2 winner Battleground (War Front--Found {Ire}, by Galileo {Ire}), a winner of the G2 Vintage S., has been purchased from Coolmore and will stand the 2022 breeding season at the Jockey Club of Turkey Stud Farms in Turkey. A fee will be announced later. Also a winner of the Listed Chesham S. at Royal Ascot, he crowned his juvenile season with a close second in the GI Breeders' Cup Juvenile Turf. Bred by Coolmore entity Orpendale/Chelston/Wynatt, the son of G1 Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe heroine Found ran third...

Aidan O'Brien will send a strong Ballydoyle challenge to the Qatar Goodwood Festival next week, and has a trio of colts ready to step forward in the G1 Qatar Sussex S.-Lope Y Fernandez (Ire) (Lope de Vega {Ire}), Order Of Australia (Ire) (Australia {GB}) and Battleground (War Front). Runner-up in the G1 Queen Anne S. at Royal Ascot, the MG1SP Lope Y Fernandez won the Listed Heritage S. at Leopardstown in April. GI Breeders' Cup Mile hero Order Of Australia was last seen in action taking the G2 Minstrel S....

Sunday at Deauville means the recently re-shaped G1 Haras d'Etreham Prix Jean Prat, which as well as being one of the final top-level encounters restricted to the 3-year-old class also represents a unique milestone as the only one of its kind for that age group over seven furlongs. Understandably, the line-up is competitive as a result while lacking a standout performer and has drawn a strong contingent from Ireland and Britain headed by last year's G1 Goffs Vincent O'Brien National S. hero Thunder Moon (Ire) (Zoffany {Ire}). Failing to fire...

Saturday's Curragh card which features the G1 Tattersalls Irish 2000 Guineas is in doubt after 35 millimetres of rain hit the track overnight Thursday. With a morning inspection called, chief executive Pat Keogh is hoping for a turnaround with the course currently waterlogged in places. "We got a lot more rain than we anticipated overnight. We were forecast 15 millimetres at the most in the last 24 hours," he explained on Friday. "It's come completely out of left field, unfortunately. The track would not be raceable today. We'll just have...

The G1 Darley July Cup, scheduled for day three of the Moet & Chandon July Festival at Newmarket July 10, has attracted 42 entries, led by trainer Roger Teal's defending race champion Oxted (GB) (Mayson {GB}). The 5-year-old, a close fifth to Glen Shiel (GB) (Pivotal {GB}) in last year's G1 QIPCO British Champions Sprint at Ascot in October, has run well without greeting the judge in two starts this term, a runner-up effort to Summerghand (Ire) (Lope de Vega {Ire}) in the G3 Abernant S. at Newmarket Apr. 15...

Group winner and 'TDN Rising Star' High Definition (Ire) (Galileo {Ire}) is likely to step forward in the Listed Lingfield Derby Trial on May 8 trainer Aidan O'Brien has revealed. A winner of a maiden at The Curragh at first asking on Aug. 22, the bay added the G2 Beresford S. to his resume there on Sept. 26 and is currently favoured for the G1 Cazoo Derby on June 5th. "We're thinking of going to Lingfield," said O'Brien. "He needs to start and with all the trials we're just trying...

The Juveniles The dark clouds had gathered come Ireland's opening turf fixture of the year at Naas in March, with the meeting held behind closed doors and giving rise to now customary scenes. As the curtain was raised, an oft-repeated sketch unfolded with Jim Bolger homebred Poetic Flare (Ire) (Dawn Approach {Ire}) annexing the first juvenile event of the year, a feat which the trainer had previously achieved on multiple occasions including with Poetic Flare's sire in 2012. Normal service resumed but, then again, not. The global pandemic soon tightened...

Well, we know that such Europeans as have been able to make the trip--another lockdown began in England on Thursday--won't be in the slightest danger of catching anything on the dirt track. If we can meanwhile break the shackles of the pandemic as well, maybe someone might feel sufficiently liberated finally to have another go next year. But at least the raiders should again be in the thick of things over on the grass. Now that the Breeders' Cup returns to Kentucky, moreover, they will be expecting an especially congenial...

It's the baby I can't get out of my mind, try as I might. Maybe you feel it shouldn't have been out at all, on such an evening and in such a place: sitting there in its diaper, on a table, under the adoring smiles of the good-looking couple who had brought it into the raucous bar. But then the infant looked very much at home, alternately raising a glass of bourbon and a cheroot to its lips. Only in L.A.; only on Halloween. On closer inspection, of course, the...

Aidan O'Brien has 12 Breeders' Cup trophies on his mantle, and he sends a typically strong team to Keeneland next week with numerous chances to bolster that number. Among the heavyweights are 2020 Group 1 winners Mogul (Ire) (Galileo {Ire}) and Magical (Ire) (Galileo {Ire}), who will attempt to give their trainer a sixth win in the GI Breeders' Cup Turf. The 3-year-old Mogul earned his first top-level victory in the G1 Grand Prix de Paris on Sept. 13 with the G1 Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe second In Swoop...

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...

Fresh from an impressive tally in Royal Ascot's Listed Chesham S., Coolmore's Battleground (War Front) emulated last year's winner of that contest--Pinatubo (Ire) (Shamardal)--by doubling up in Tuesday's G2 Veuve Clicquot Vintage S. at Goodwood. Employing patient tactics trapped three wide in sixth after a level break in the seven-furlong contest, the 13-8 favourite made smooth headway on the bridle in the straight to challenge at the quarter-mile marker and he was driven out once seizing control soon after to deny G2 Superlative S. runner-up Devious Company (Ire) (Fast Company...