Australia, 6 March 2013

Holy Roman Emperor colt tops closing session at Inglis

The Inglis Melbourne Premier Yearling Sale concluded at Oaklands on Wednesday with session two of the sale registering a 13% rise in aggregate and an improved clearance rate of 68%. The average and median were unchanged.

Connections hoping former Gold Cup winner can return from lung infection by Aintree

Imperial Commander will miss the Betfred Gold Cup at Cheltenham next week after contracting a lung infection. Connections had been hoping for a decent run from the 2010 winner, who returned from a lengthy layoff with a fine second in the Argento Chase in January.

Three juvenile Group Ones to be run at Newmarket on Friday 17 October

The British Flat racing season will have a grand finale over a newly minted "Champions Weekend" this season after it was announced that Dubai Future Champions Day at Newmarket will move back a week to Friday 17 October, the day before QIPCO British Champions Day at Ascot.

Eight races upgraded by European Pattern Committee

The European Pattern Committee has announced changes to Black Type (Group and Listed) races in Europe in 2013 that sees eight races upgraded, headed by the granting of Group One status to the BCS Fillies and Mares Stakes at Ascot on 19th October which increases the number of Group One races on British Champions Day to three.

California, 5 March 2013

Malibu Moon and Dunkirk in demand at breeze-up sale

The Barretts March Selected two-year-olds in training sale took place on Monday with strong trade that saw the average jump by 31.1% to $143,459 and the median by 17.6% to $100,000, up from $85,000. With fewer horses sold than last year the aggregate rose by 4% to $8,751,000 for 61 horses sold, from $8,426,000 for 77 sold last year. The buyback rate was 33.7%, down from 36.4% a year ago.

Aidan O'Brien is pleased with his multiple Classic-winner Camelot, who is working well ahead of a four-year-old campaign, having recovered well from a serious bout of colic.

The 2000 Guineas winner won the Derby at Espom and the Irish version at the Curragh, but came up short behind Encke in the St Leger.

Unbeaten champion and new recruit to the stallion ranks Frankel has had his first mare scanned in foal.

Dual Group Three winner Chrysanthemum has been confirmed to be in foal to Frankel, who stands at Juddmonte in Newmarket. JUddmonte also confirmed that Pretty Primo, a winning half-sister to Group One Prix Jean-Luc Lagardere winner Wootton Bassett, is in foal to Bated Breath.

It’s the first big race of the Cheltenham Festival and it is certainly worth waiting for. The much anticipated meeting gets underway with a huge roar of the Prestbury Park crowd as the tape goes up for the opening race. However, it is merely a prelude to the Champion Hurdle later in the day, which is shaping up to be quite a contest.

Australia, 4 March 2013

Strong demand as middle distance and staying lots come under the hammer

The Inglis Melbourne Premier Yearling Sale continued on Monday with the inaugural 'Blue Riband' session attracting spirited bidding as buyers spent $13.2 million on 152 lots.

Akeed Mofeed (Dubawi) has attracted a weight of attention since arriving in Hong Kong at the start of the season and the Richard Gibson-trained colt opened his account in timely and impressive fashion on Saturday with the BMW Hong Kong Derby (2000m) only two weeks away.

Dubai, 3 March 2013

Simcock's York handicap winner continues strong showing in Dubai

Trade Storm (Trade Fair) scored a remarkable victory in the Group Two Zabeel Mile, the 1600m turf feature at the ninth meeting of the Dubai World Cup Carnival, on Saturday evening. Slowly away under Jamie Spencer, the David Simcock-trained Trade Storm was last as the eight runners turned for home but, just as he and Spencer had done in a 1m1f handicap two weeks ago, he passed all his rivals to win easily.

Australia, 3 March 2013

Indicators on a par with last year at Oaklands

A diverse buying bench purchased 81 lots for $5,890,500 during the new Sunday afternoon session on day one of the 2013 Inglis Melbourne Premier Yearling Sale at Oaklands today. The average price on Sunday was $73,133, median $60,000 and clearance rate of 74%.

Santa Anita, 3 March 2013

Henny Hughes filly back to dominant best after throat ulcer

Beholder(Henny Hughes), Eclipse champion two-year-old filly for 2012, made amends for an odds-on flop in the Grade Two Santa Ynez Stakes on 21 January with a powerful gate to wire win in Saturday’s Grade One Las Virgenes Stakes for three-year-old fillies at Santa Anita, winning by 3 ¾ lengths under Garrett Gomez while negotiating one mile in 1:36.14.

Santa Anita, 3 March 2013

Stellar performance gives son of Awesome Again repeat win in Big 'Cap

In a performance for the ages, 6-5 favorite Game On Dude (Awesome Again) went gate to wire to win Saturday’s Grade One Santa Anita Handicap by a record 7 ¾ lengths under Mike Smith, vanquishing eight rivals in 2:00.14 while becoming only the third horse in the 76-year history of the race to win it twice.

Santa Anita, 3 March 2013

In a desperate finish, Argentine-bred Suggestive Boy (Easing Along), ridden by Joe Talamo, held off the late charge of Silentio and Rafael Bejarano to win Saturday’s Grade One Frank E. Kilroe Mile (turf) by a nose, providing Hall of Fame trainer Ron McAnally with his 700th career win at Santa Anita while getting the distance in 1:32.89.

Aqueduct, 3 March 2013

Grade Two Jerome winner stretches clear at Aqueduct

Unbeaten Into Mischief colt Vyjack (Into Mischief) took a big step along New York’s road to the Kentucky Derby as he stormed through the stretch to win the Grade Three Gotham on Saturday at Aqueduct Racetrack by 2 ¼ lengths over West Hills Giant.

Australia, 2 March 2013

All To Hard scratched from Group One feature

Jim Conlan’s decision to throw Ferlax (Pentire) into the deep end reaped a valuable reward when the untapped colt grabbed Group One victory in the $500,000 Australian Guineas at Flemington on Saturday.

Australia, 2 March 2013

"Plenty of improvement to come" as star colt wins the Hobartville Stakes

Superstar three-year-old Pierro (Lonhro) gave the racing public a reminder of his class, scoring a determined victory over the previously unbeaten Rebel Dane in the Group Two Hobartville Stakes (1400m) at Rosehill Gardens in Sydney on Saturday.

Dubai, 1 March 2013

Elusive Quality filly reverses form with Lovely Pass and Music Chart

Godolphin trainer Saeed bin Suroor added to his phenomenal record in the Group Three UAE Oaks with Shuruq (Elusive Quality) supplying him with an eighth victory in the race at Thursday's eighth meeting of the 2013 Dubai World Cup Carnival at Meydan. Second in both the UAE 1,000 Guineas Trial and UAE 1,000 Guineas, the filly was able to reverse the form of both those races when chasing home Godolphin-owned duo Music Chart (Trial over 1400m) and Lovely Pass (Guineas over 1600m). They are both trained by Mahmoud Al Zarooni and Lovely Pass was second on this occasion, one place ahead of Music Chart to give Godolphin a 1-2-3.

Johnny Murtagh has spoken to Irish radio about his split with the Aga Khan last year, after his position as retained rider was terminated.

Speaking to RTE 1's Ear To The Ground programme, Murtagh said the issue stemmed from the result of the Group Three Irish St Leger Trial, where the Tommy Carmody-trained Ursa Major beat the Aga Khan's Hartani. Murtagh owns the Curragh stables at which Carmody trains.

There are a record number of entries for the 11 handicaps at this year's Cheltenham Festival, the weights for which were revealed today.

Irish champion trainer Willie Mullins boasts a formidable team for The Festival and he accounts for the joint or sole top-weight in five of the 11 handicaps including Uncle Junior in the Glenfarclas Cross Country Chase.

Entries for all 27 races at The Festival are now in the public domain with the unveiling on wednesday of the contenders for the Grade Two OLBG Mares' Hurdle, the Grade One Weatherbys Champion Bumper and the CGA Foxhunter Chase.

Overturn has taken to fences better than we could have hoped. Everything has gone very smoothly - we have got in all the runs we wanted. He is in great nick at home and we thoroughly look forward to the race. All we need now is a bit of good ground for the first day of The Festival.

To make Cheltenham pay, we probably need to be right about a handicap or two. A month before the race, the bookmakers had only just started pricing up the Coral Cup and Wonderful Charm, though a tentative favourite, was available at 12/1, or 14/1 in a place. Now, we don’t know how much they would have accepted at those odds but it was important to act quickly. Paul Nicholls is quite bullish about Wonderful Charm, who has had a wind operation since winning at Chepstow in the autumn, and mentioned him to me at the Grand National Weights lunch recently.

Trainer Nigel Twiston-Davies hosted the media at an open day at his Naunton stables on Monday, where he revealed he is looking forward to The Festival: "I am feeling really quite happy - nobody is expecting an awful lot. It wasn't fun in the build-up when Commander was favourite for the Gold Cup. Everybody thought he would win and so did I - in a way only things can go wrong then. When you are not expected, it is more fun the better you do rather than a kick in the nuts when you get beat.