Goliath

The connections of Fantastic Moon (Ger) (Sea The Moon {Ger}), eleventh in Sunday's G1 Japan Cup, have declined an invitation to the G1 Longines Hong Kong Vase at Sha Tin Racecourse on Sunday, December 8, and the four-year-old has been officially retired, Liberty Racing's Lars-W. Baumgarten confirmed Monday on X. Fantastic Moon will enter stud in 2025 at Gestut Ebbesloh as previously announced. "Finishing 11th in the Japan Cup, Fantastic Moon appeared a bit tired in the final furlong. It was a long season for him. We'll pass on the...

Three top-class European invaders made the trip across to contest Sunday's G1 Japan Cup, trying to put a dent in the locals, who have more or less owned the 2400-metre feature since the turn of the century. But each was done in--to varying degrees--by a race that was run at a walking pace for the opening mile, and favoured Do Deuce (Jpn) (Heart's Cry {Jpn}) ensured that the trophy would remain in Japan for another year. The 5-year-old took off from the back of the field approaching the home straight...

Anticlimactic goes by the household name of disappointing and there was no disguising the glum faces at Goffs on Friday when Gouache (Ger) (Shamardal), the dam of live Japan Cup hope Goliath (Ger) (Adlerflug {Ger}), failed to sell at €5 million. A collective groan was heard in the jam-packed auditorium when Henry Beeby uttered the words, "I'm afraid that's not enough," at €5 million. One pressroom colleague suggested that he wouldn't be rushing into a game of poker with the Goffs chief executive any time soon as things seemed to...

Three of Europe's top 2400-metre gallopers face an 11-strong local challenge in Sunday's G1 Japan Cup, looking to snap an 18-year run of success for Japanese-based horses. While it has become next to impossible for the raiders to walk away with the Tokyo spoils, that was not always the case. In the first 17 renewals, horses from overseas prevailed on no fewer than a dozen occasions, including theretofore unprecedented consecutive winners for Sir Michael Stoute with Singspiel (Ire) and Pilsudski (Ire) in 1996 and 1997, respectively. But since that time,...

Auguste Rodin (Ire) (Deep Impact {Jpn}) took to the grass at Tokyo racecourse on Wednesday ahead of the last race of his career in the Japan Cup on Sunday. His trainer Aidan O'Brien has also arrived in Japan to oversee the final stages of his preparation. "He did a lovely seven furlongs on the grass this morning, just to show him the track, and he looked comfortable," said O'Brien. "He's a horse that has speed and class, has long strides and a big action and is great at the mile-and-a-half...

A total of 56 horses from eight racing jurisdictions--some 26 of which have struck at the Group 1/Grade I level--including 31 overseas gallopers, have been extended invitations to the Longines Hong Kong International Races, to be staged Sunday, Dec. 8 at Sha Tin Racecourse. With Rebel's Romance (Ire) (Dubawi {Ire})--a top-level winner in Hong Kong earlier this season and last seen taking out the GI Breeders' Cup Turf--passing the meeting, Resolute Racing's Goliath (Ger) (Adlerflug {Ger}) is the biggest name among those invited from abroad. The on-the-bridle winner of the...

Gouache (Ger), the dam of the G1 King George VI and Queen Elizabeth QIPCO Stakes winner Goliath (Ger), is to be sold at the Goffs November Breeding Stock Sale. A Listed-winning daughter of Shamardal, Gouache is a half-sister to the G2 Gerling-Preis winner Guardini (Fr) (Dalakhani {Ire}), and she will be offered in foal to Baaeed (GB). The 12-year-old mare will be consigned by Millennium Stud. Bred by the Ullmann family of Gestut Schlenderhan, the mare passed through a sale ring only last December when sold at Arqana for €200,000...

You wait ages for one gelding capable of spicing up the Arc field to appear - then two come along at once. Expediency is the obvious backdrop to France Galop's move to reconsider the ban on geldings in the Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe, but the debate nevertheless goes to the heart of what sport is meant to be: the best against the best.  It's more nuanced and interesting than a straight in-house polemic about Group 1 race conditions. You'd have a hard job selling that one to the general...

American owner-breeder John Stewart of Resolute Racing has completed a deal to buy a majority share in the G1 King George VI and Queen Elizabeth Stakes winner Goliath (Ger) (Adlerflug {Ger}). The four-year-old gelding, who is trained in Chantilly by Francis-Henri Graffard, was bred by Gestut Schlenderhan and races in the colours of Schlenderhan's Baron Philip von Ullmann. The owner's father, Georg, raced the 2005 GI Breeders' Cup Turf winner Shirocco (Ger) (Monsun {Ger}) among a host of top-class horses, and this year's Breeders' Cup will be among the options...

It's not easy to write a column while watching the Olympics, especially as Britain attempts to out-battle France for eventing gold at the Palace of Versailles, but here goes. It was France which had the upper hand at Ascot on Saturday or, correctly speaking, Francis-Henri Graffard, whose return from Chantilly to the Berkshire track with the rampaging Goliath (Ger) (Adlerflug {Ger}) should have been eye-popping enough to ensure that his runners are never again sent off at such generous odds in Britain. We can now savour the prospect of once...

ASCOT, UK -- By now, the breeding world is wise to the fact that we only realised almost all too late that Adlerflug was a stallion who should have been treated with the utmost respect. The team at Gestut Schlenderhan knew, but then they bred Adlerflug, who died in 2021 just months after he had been crowned Germany's champion sire for the first time and not long after Schlenderhan had celebrated its 150th anniversary.  Adlerflug has been kind to Francis-Henri Graffard, who trained his son In Swoop, also for the...

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,...