A banquet of weekend horse racing for punters
Jockey Jim Crowley rides Hukum to victory in the Coronation Cup on the first day of the Epsom Derby Festival horse racing event at Epsom Downs Racecourse in Epsom, south of England, on June 3, 2022.
The Cazoo Derby, and all other glamorous races, are surfing into a mega trolley of delights at Chantilly on Sunday. Hot-toddy, Modern Games (William Buick 2-1), alights from stall 13 in the 1.2-mile Qatar Prix du Jockey Club, for which allocation of stalls had to be completely redone after Point Lonsdale was erroneously left in the draw, despite not being declared for the Classic.
Point Lonsdale, trained by Aidan O'Brien, was one notable absentee as 15 remained secure, for France's emulation of Epsom.
Strangely, the colt was mistakenly left in, initially denying the Andrew Balding's, Imperial Fighter, a place. Importantly, Charlie Appleby's, Modern Games is aiming to replicate his Poule d'Essai des Poulains, last month.
James Ferguson has an interesting entry with El Bodegon (Ioritz Mendizabal 4-1), having the best draw in Gate one. Ancient Rome (Tom Marquand 4-1), for Andre Fabre, also has a good slot in five. He finished fifth in the Poulains.
Aiden O'Brien, who took this €1.5m contest a year ago with St Mark's Basilica, will instead rely on Ivy League (stall seven, Ryan Moore) and Acropolis (stall ten, Frankie Dettori). This is how it stands with bookies: 2 Modern Games, 6 Al Hakeem, 15-2 Vadeni, 17-2 Onesto, 10 Lassaut, Ancient Rome, 11 Welwal, 16 Imperial Fighter, 18 Ivy League, 20 El Bodegon, 28 Yoozuna, 33 The Acropolis, 40 Vagalame, 50 Machete, Mister Saint Paul.
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In keeping with the Royal Jubilee commemorations, Ngong racecourse is hosting a riveting meeting June 12 to coincide with the St.Leger.
Muthaiga Club are joining in the revelry, which will indeed be very special. After all, Her Majesty did become Queen overnight, while staying at Treetops Hotel in February 1952. Enjoying a weekend with the Duke of Edinburgh, the young Princess was alerted of her father's death, and life never returned to normal. She flew back to be crowned amidst a flurry of reporters.
