Reports of long queues – alongside hiked ticket prices – means the French course missed a chance to impressThe vivid complaints of those who paid to be at Longchamp on Sunday suggest to me failures on a grand scale by the French racing authorities. If you’re going to hike your ticket price to €75 for general admission, thereby slashing your crowd to 35,000 from 55,000, the very least you should be doing is offering a really big welcome for those loyal folk who still come.Instead, we get reports of queues for food, drink, toilets and betting that forced people to choose between waiting their turn and watching the next race. Apparently, some finally reached the front of the food queues...
Prices were buoyant at the Goffs Orby sale last week, thanks in part to the arrival in the market of Phoenix ThoroughbredsNewmarket takes centre stage in the Flat racing world this week – first with the exclusive Tattersalls Book 1 sale over the next three days, and then with two days out top-class juvenile racing at the Future Champions meeting.Prices were buoyant, to say the least, at the Goffs Orby sale last week, which is the Irish equivalent of Book 1, thanks in part to the arrival in the market of another major new player in the shape of Phoenix Thoroughbreds. Phoenix describes itself as a “global racing and bloodstock investment group”, and bought the two top lots at the...
Carlos Laffon-Parias will be leading the charge with his excellent miler Recoletos on Champions Day at AscotArc day at Longchamp on Sunday was, by a long stretch, the most valuable card of the year in France and for the most part, the massed ranks of the French training fraternity could only watch as 95% of the first prize money – more than £3.2m in all – was won by horses from British yards.French racing does have an imminent chance to exact some revenge, however, as Qipco Champions Day at Ascot is the next major date on the calendar and Carlos Laffon-Parias will be leading the charge with his excellent miler Recoletos. Related: Enable joins horse racing greats with second Prix...
Aidan O’Brien’s back-to-form Ballydoyle yard can land another Group One prize with their classy fillyAidan O’Brien was winning Group races for fun last weekend. He can land Newmarket’s Sun Chariot Stakes for a third year in a row, this time with Clemmie (3.15), who has been quietly running her way back to form.This bonny filly began the season as favourite for the 1,000 Guineas but missed that after an unspecified setback and was disappointing in her first two runs. But she ran her best race of the year three weeks ago when only two lengths behind Laurens in the Matron Stakes. Related: James Doyle needs to starve for Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe weigh-in Fontwell 1.40 Beautiful People 2.15 Zen Master...
Three-times Arc winning trainer thinks punters should focus on André Fabre in Sunday’s big raceWith a family history steeped in the magic of the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe, Criquette Head-Maarek is better placed than most to pass judgement on this year’s renewal at Longchamp.Head-Maarek’s father, Alec, won the great race four times, as did brother Freddy in the saddle, grandfather William struck twice and she herself managed three victories – once with Three Troikas in 1979 and then back-to-back with the magnificent Treve in 2013 and 2014. Many of the family’s successes came with fillies, and with Enable and Sea Of Class dominating the betting, the odds suggest the female division will hold sway once more this weekend. Related:...