Saturday previews

With York's Ebor Festival drawing the elite performers next week, Saturday's action across Europe is lacking a championship contest but not intrigue as some progressive types put their reputations on the line at Deauville, Newbury and The Curragh. Perhaps the biggest name on the day is Ballydoyle's G1 St Leger hero Continuous (Jpn) (Heart's Cry {Jpn}) in the G3 Royal Whip Stakes at the Kildare venue, looking to build on his comeback effort in a renewal of Royal Ascot's G2 Hardwicke Stakes that has taken on extra gravitas with the...

With Highfield Princess (Fr) (Night Of Thunder {Ire}) sadly no longer with us and Shaquille (GB) (Charm Spirit {Ire}) retired, Europe's sprint category is in something of a lull at present. Elite-level performers are thin on the ground for Saturday's G1 Queen Elizabeth II Jubilee Stakes at Royal Ascot, with the best of them being Kinross (GB) (Kingman {GB}) who will be racing on ground that is quicker than ideal. When it comes to the baker's dozen tackling Marc Chan's standard-setter, it will probably be a case of who peaks...

Newmarket Heath's nude brutality awaits a clutch of elite 3-year-olds on Saturday, from the ones who have flashed unusual prowess in the major juvenile exposés to those whose flashes of luminosity have come on smaller and less expected stages. The Rowley Mile's designated strip for the 2000 Guineas is as hostile this horrid Spring as it ever has been and Friday's grey skies and rain only served to extend Europe's winter hangover. Indifferent to weakness, expecting many a flinch and fold from the competitors lined up for the first Classic...

   Saturday's action features four Group 1s and four Group 2s across Newmarket and ParisLongchamp, with all ages and distances covered from the six furlongs of the G1 Juddmonte Middle Park S. and G1 Juddmonte Cheveley Park S. to the two and a half miles of the G1 Qatar Prix du Cadran. It is the former pair of prizes that take centre stage, with so much at stake for the precocious stars of their generation. The onus is very much on KHK Racing's G1 Prix Morny winner Vandeek (GB) (Havana...

You've heard for a while that Saturday's edition of the G1 King George VI and Queen Elizabeth QIPCO S. is a special one. "Race for the ages" has been bandied about and for good reason given the accumulation of top-class mile-and-a-half horses set for the Ascot joust. What had for so long been starved of a meaningful intergenerational clash and threatened to become a bygone curio has suddenly been dusted off and revived due largely to the presence of the Derby winner. Auguste Rodin (Ire) (Deep Impact {Jpn}) is no...

Heavy rain hit Doncaster's Town Moor track on Thursday and refused to relent during the following afternoon, so the Saturday feature G1 Vertem Futurity Trophy is certain to be a thorough examination for its protagonists. It will ask a question of Ballydoyle's latest hot favourite for the juvenile endgame, the TDN Rising Star Auguste Rodin (Ire) (Deep Impact {Jpn}) who would have preferred the ground was in the other direction and now has to prove his mental resolve as well as his physical prowess. While the son of the high-class...

Despite all the excitement of the past few days, incredibly it ramps up further on Saturday with nine group races across Britain, Ireland and France and the sighting of some of Europe's most exciting 2-year-olds. It begins with the veracious Oscula (Ire) (Galileo Gold {GB}) at Deauville as Nick Bradley Racing's flagbearer appears for the seventh time since the start of July in the G3 Prix Daphnis and switches thereafter between York, Sandown, The Curragh and back to Deauville with the kind of pace that will require video review later...

Saturday's action can safely be said to be low-key as far as this time of the season is concerned, but then the emphasis is on the upcoming jamboree at Epsom and the readying of the Platinum Jubilee celebrations so it is up to the contrasting parts of the racing world known as Haydock and Baden-Baden to supply the afternoon's European pattern races. At the former venue, the G3 Betfred Pinnacle S. witnesses another Sunderland Holding-William Haggas special in Sea La Rosa (Ire) (Sea the Stars {Ire}) who will be favourite...