Epsom

Hammer Blow as Hukum Ruled Out For Season With Leg Fracture

Owen Burrows has been dealt a hammer blow with the news that brilliant G1 Coronation Cup winner Hukum (Ire) (Sea The Stars {Ire}) will miss the rest of the season after fracturing his hind leg.  Hukum made the breakthrough at the highest level when storming to Coronation Cup glory at Epsom on Friday and now his racing career hangs in the balance.  For Burrows, Friday's win also represented a memorable first at Group 1 level, with the trainer describing the success as "massive" at the time.  However, just three days...

[ Read More ]
Strawberry Fields Forever

"The Derby is a different game," breeder Gary Robinson told TDN's Alayna Cullen on camera last week, and he now knows that for sure, for his Strawberry Fields Stud just outside Newmarket can proudly boast of being the birthplace of the Derby winner Desert Crown (GB) (Nathaniel {Ire}). While most of Robinson's team from the farm travelled to Epsom to watch their graduate's crowning moment, the stud owner himself took a leaf out of The Queen's book and watched the race at home from the comfort of his own sofa....

[ Read More ]
Derby Glory For Desert Crown

There were stage-managed fireworks exploding from Epsom's stands minutes before the 243rd staging of the G1 Cazoo Derby In Memory of Lester Piggott, but the real pyrotechnics were provided on the grass by Saeed Suhail's superb Desert Crown (GB) (Nathaniel {Ire}--Desert Berry {GB}, by Green Desert) as he proved a class apart in this special edition. Sent off the 5-2 favourite for a race which looked deep both numerically and in terms of talent and promise, the unbeaten TDN Rising Star marked the occasion with a performance to place alongside...

[ Read More ]
O'Brien Reaches New High With Tuesday On Friday  

EPSOM, UK--Just when we thought there was nothing new to say in praise of Aidan O'Brien, up he jumps to break a 159-year-old record for the number of British Classic winners by a trainer. It took the previous record-holder John Scott 36 years to amass his 40, and O'Brien has reached his tally of 41 in just 23. After an opening brace in 1998, when King Of Kings (Ire) won the 2000 Guineas and Shahtoush (Ire) gave the trainer the first of his 10 Oaks victories, the Ballydoyle maestro had...

[ Read More ]
Galileo's Tuesday Secures Classic Record For O'Brien

Choosing her own third birthday to bring Aidan O'Brien a record 41st British Classic, Tuesday (Ire) (Galileo {Ire}--Lillie Langtry {Ire}, by Danehill Dancer {Ire}) inched out TDN Rising Star Emily Upjohn (GB) (Sea the Stars {Ire}) in a thriller for Friday's G1 Cazoo Oaks at Epsom. Third in the 1000 Guineas and runner-up in the Irish equivalent, the homebred who was a 13-2 shot to emulate her full-sister Minding (Ire) arrived from rear to grab the lead inside the final two furlongs and had her nose in front on the line...

[ Read More ]
The Derby: Where Did They Come From?

Lent extra poignancy this year for being run in memory of Lester Piggott, the blue riband of the turf features colts with the whole range of backgrounds, from a £3,000 yearling to regal homebreds.   ROYAL PATRONAGE (FR), Wootton Bassett (GB)--Shaloushka (Ire) (Dalakhani {Ire}) Owner: Highclere Thoroughbred Racing - Woodland Walk Breeder: Emma Capon Bloodstock Trainers: Charlie and Mark Johnston Sales History: A 62,000gns Tattersalls October Book 1 yearling. Pedigree Notes: He is the first foal of his Aga Khan-bred dam, a winner at up to 1 1/2 miles whose...

[ Read More ]
Doyle and Marquand “Won't Give Each Other An Inch” in Historic Oaks

They might be making history as the first husband and wife to ride against each other in a British Classic, but Tom Marquand and Hollie Doyle insist they "won't give each other an inch" when they go head to head in Friday's G1 Cazoo Oaks. The childhood sweethearts have been riding against each other since their pony racing days and tied the knot in Hertfordshire in March this year before jetting off to compete at the Dubai World Cup just a few days later. And while they encounter each other...

[ Read More ]
'Three Months Ago We Wouldn't Even Have Thought About It': Clover Primed for First Classic Runner

There are more than a few echoes of the past when it comes to G1 Cazoo Oaks contender Rogue Millennium (Ire) (Dubawi {Ire}). Bred by Shadwell, and trained from Kremlin House Stables in Newmarket, she will arrive at Epsom on the back of just two runs, both this season. Such a profile was no hindrance for the 2005 Oaks winner Eswarah (GB) (Unfuwain), trained for Sheikh Hamdan by Michael Jarvis. But while comparisons of yesteryear are understandable, Rogue Millennium, trained by the late Michael Jarvis's son-in-law Tom Clover, is a...

[ Read More ]
'I am Delighted That he has a Top Miler in Baaeed – I had Been Waiting for That'

Kick-starting a new weekly Q&A series in TDN Europe, former champion trainer John Oxx, whose spellbinding career will forever be remembered through his masterful handling of Sea The Stars (Ire) (Cape Cross {Ire}), Sinndar (Ire) (Grand Lodge) and Ridgewood Pearl (GB) (Indian Ridge {Ire}), sat down with Brian Sheerin to talk all things racing and breeding. The dual Derby-winning trainer speaks about Epsom, how delighted he is that Sea The Stars has a top-notch miler in Baaeed and his life in retirement.   Brian Sheerin: There are few weeks in...

[ Read More ]
Cazoo Derby To Be Shown Worldwide

More than 50 international broadcasters will cover the G1 Cazoo Derby at Epsom Downs Racecourse, an official part of Her Majesty The Queen's Platinum Jubilee celebrations, on June 4. The £1.604-million contest will be shown live by 32 broadcasters, and there will be 15 on-site news and lifestyle broadcasters, plus various news agencies for the two-day stand. These broadcasters were secured by The Jockey Club, Racecourse Media Group and HBA Media. In America, both Good Morning America (ABC network) and NBC News will broadcast live from the course, while Jess...

[ Read More ]
It's The Derby, And It's The Best

"A few minutes, only a few minutes, and the event that for twelve months has been the pivot of so much calculation, of such subtle combinations, of such deep conspiracies, round which the thought and passion of the sporting world have hung like eagles, will be recorded in the fleeting tablets of the past. But what minutes! Count them by sensation and not by calendars, and each moment is a day and the race a life." Words to make you put down your cup of coffee and summon up the...

[ Read More ]
Eydon Takes on Cazoo Derby Over French Classic

Eydon (Ire) (Olden Times {GB}) has been confirmed to start in Saturday's G1 Cazoo Derby at Epsom, according to trainer Roger Varian. "I'm pleased to say the horse is in great form and following discussions with his owner, Prince A A Faisal, we plan to run in the Derby at Epsom on Saturday and not the [G1] Prix du Jockey Club at Chantilly on Sunday." Kicking off the season with a runner-up finish going a mile at Newcastle in February, the dark bay took the nine-furlong Feilden S. Apr. 14...

[ Read More ]
X

Never miss another story from the TDN

Click Here to sign up for a free subscription.