The Championships

Dubai Honour (Ire) (Pride Of Dubai {Aus}), the winner of last year's G1 Ranvet S. and G1 Queen Elizabeth II S. in Sydney, will not be returning to Australia for this year's Championships after meeting with a setback.  The six-year-old, who is trained in Newmarket by William Haggas for owner Mohamed Obaida, had been set to defend his crown this spring but will be prepared instead for Hong Kong's G1 QEII Cup, in which he finished third last year. "We are disappointed to announce that Dubai Honour has had a...

Cheltenham is behind us and, yes, we still have Aintree and Punchestown to come of the major jumps fixtures but, with the clocks on the turn, really the only thing to think about now is the return of the Flat. The turf season makes its staggered return in Ireland on Sunday, and in Britain the following Saturday. France is already racing ahead and packed in four stakes races at Saint-Cloud last Saturday, with the Listed Prix Omnium II providing the first TDN Rising Star on the European turf for 2023...

Trainer Joseph O'Brien intends to send a string of five horses to compete Down Under at the Sydney Autumn Carnival, Racing.com reported on Tuesday. The quintet, which consists of G3 Ballyroan S. runner-up Cleveland (Ire) (Camelot {GB}), winner Temple Of Artemis (Ire) (Galileo {Ire}), triple group winner and Group 1-placed Baron Samedi (GB) (Harbour Watch {Ire}), G3 Irish St. Leger Trial hero Raise You (Ire) (Lope De Vega {Ire}) and Statement (Ire) (Lawman {Fr}), who won the G3 Concorde S., are supposed to be among the nominations--released later in the...

With their own domestic racing programmes decimated by COVID-19, many Europeans naturally looked to Randwick's card in Sydney to get their weekend fix of high-class racing. There was further reason to focus on 'The Championships' with Newmarket-based William Haggas having a fancied runner in two of the Group 1 races, the G1 Schweppes Sydney Cup and the G1 Longines Queen Elizabeth S. Happily, his representative Addeybb (Ire) (Pivotal {GB} won the latter race, the meeting's showpiece feature. This triumph (which, of course, is likely to be the final British-trained overseas...

"It ended up being a pretty good day," says Tom Marquand with no little understatement. The day in question came less than a fortnight ago in Australia when the English jockey landed his first Group 1 victory aboard the William Haggas-trained Addeybb (GB) (Pivotal {GB}) in the Ranvet S. That same afternoon at Rosehill, Marquand also guided Addeybb's stable-mate Young Rascal (Fr) (Intello {Ger}) to glory in the G3 Manion Cup. With Australian racing currently taking place behind closed doors, there was no thunderous applause to herald Marquand's breakthrough moment,...

The grass gallops are now open on Newmarket's Warren Hill—a sure sign that spring is on the way, and formerly part of the traditional countdown to the start of the Flat season. These days, however, the top-class Flat action barely stops throughout the year which means that before the wraps come off the British turf season at Doncaster on Mar. 28, a number of the town's trainers will already have had some of their leading lights in action around the world. This spring promises to have a more international outlook...