Trots

Aidan O'Brien has never won the GI Breeders' Cup Classic. But it hasn't been from a lack of effort. He's had 13 starters in the race and has run some very good horses, including Galileo (Ire) (Sadler's Wells) and Giant's Causeway (Storm Cat). But his luck could very well change this year as he will take aim at the Classic with one of the best horses of this generation. The O'Brien trained City of Troy (Justify) has had an outstanding campaign in Europe, winning six of seven starts, including four Group I races. City of Troy would probably be a cinch if O'Brien were to run him in the GI Breeders' Cup Turf, but the trainer has picked the bigger challenge, the Classic. O'Brien was the guest of the week on the latest edition of TDN Writers' Room podcast presented by Keeneland, to explain his decision, and much more. “(Running in the Classic) was always on our minds,” O'Brien said, “We've never won Classic. It's obviously a race that we'd love to win, but we know that you need an exceptional horse to do it really. Obviously he's by Justify, which makes it very exciting and always made it look like he could be very special for us. He's handy, he stays, he's determined; has all the things you need to make this happen. It's a big ask to run on the dirt first time and with a horse that's not trained on it.” O'Brien is not taking anything for granted and has been doing everything he can to prepare the Justify colt for his first ever dirt start. That includes sending him to England on Sept. 20 to have a trial race over a synthetic surface at Southwell Race Course. “He'll fly over there,” he said. “It will be like a race dy for him. It will  be on an artificial surface. Obviously, it's not dirt, but it's as close as probably we can get from here. It's a little bit of a change off of what he is used to. We'll be bringing an American stye starting gate that we have and the horses. We'll probably go a mile and we'll probably do as much as we can to have him as ready as he can be. This is going to be a big change for him. We're trying to do it gently rather than having one big shock.” O'Brien said he will bring between five and eight horses to challenge City of Troy in the mock race. That City of Troy's sire is Justify is a huge factor. He's an exceptional sire and his progeny can handle the dirt. What does O'Brien think of Justify? “When we saw him first, like he looked a different breed, O'Brien said. “He looked like a big quarter horse.  When we saw him at first, we could not believe the amount of muscle and the power and the scope and the strength that he had. He was able to go a mile-and-a-half in the Belmont and the distance was no problem for him. His stock has a lot of class. They're very high cruisers, they're very genuine. They're very like Galileo's but they have more speed. I suppose what he did as a racehorse was just out of this world. That's why we're so excited about him. He looks like a massive big powerful dirt horse.” In our breeding spotlight section we looked at the WinStar stallion Constitution. Elsewhere on the podcast, which is also sponsored by the Pennsylvania Horse Breeders' Association, West Point Thoroughbreds, WinStar, XBTV.com and the KTA/KTOB, the team of Randy Moss, Zoe Cadman and Bill Finley, discussed a closing weekend at Del Mar that was dominated by Bob Baffert and the races at Kentucky Downs, where the purses have risen to levels that once were unfathomable. They also took on the story of Churchill Downs making changes to its 'Road to the Derby' schedule, noting that races with five horses or less will now have fewer points than those with six or more horses. Click here to watch the Writers' Room and here to access it as a podcast.   The post Aidan O’Brien Joins TDN Writers’ Room Podcast appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions. View the full article

After a pair of runner-up finishes in graded stakes with disadvantageous trips, Shotgun Hottie will look to get back in a winning groove when she faces seven fillies and mares in the $400,000 Locust Grove Stakes (G2) at Churchill Downs Sept. 14.View the full article

Owner-breeders David Howden and Jayne McGivern, both of whom are also heavily involved in the eventing world, have unveiled plans for a valuable class for former racehorses at Howden's Cornbury House Horse Trials. The Cornbury Racehorses Eventing Challenge is a joint initiative which will be run at the Oxfordshire event in 2025, offering a first prize of £45,000. The duo hopes that it will help to raise the profile of the suitability of Thoroughbreds for eventing.  The class will be run at British Eventing Open Novice level, but using an FEI CCI2*-S dressage test in a long arena. The showjumping phase will be last and run in reverse order. The aim for subsequent years will be to run the class at British Eventing Intermediate level. Entrants must have achieved two Minimum Eligibility Requirements (MERs) as a combination at novice level in the current season (2025). Horses must not have competed at CCI4* level or above in the past two seasons. Riders will be restricted to two entries each, and horses do not need to have raced or to have been in training, but must be registered with Weatherbys or the appropriate Thoroughbred studbook of their country of origin. Howden, the founder and president of Cornbury House Horse Trials whose homebred filly Running Lion (GB) won this year's G2 Duke of Cambridge Stakes at Royal Ascot, said, “I am so excited that we will be introducing this very special class at CHHT in 2025. Jayne McGivern and I share a joint-passion for both eventing and racing and for the amazing horses in those sports, and we hope to draw attention to the wonderful versatility of Thoroughbred – and to encourage our best riders to recognise their suitability for eventing and to reward them for the correct training of them.” McGivern is the owner of Dash Grange Stud and also stands Golden Horn (GB) at Overbury Stud. She added, “There is no doubt that Thoroughbreds can shine at the very top level in eventing, and I hope this class will inspire our top riders and everyone else connected to this fantastic sport to believe in them and give them the opportunities and the best care and training to reach their full potential.”   The post Howden and McGivern Back Eventing Challenge for Ex-Racehorses appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions. View the full article

Got a bonus bet for my birthday, 

From its launch in 2019, covering the five days of Royal Ascot, the World Pool has grown gradually to 33 race days this year across eight different countries. It is fair to expect to see that expansion continue apace. The international commingling of betting pools was the brainchild of Winfried Engelbrecht-Bresges, CEO of the Hong Kong Jockey Club, which powers World Pool. Twenty-eight jurisdictions can now bet into that pool. “It is our vision to bring the world's finest racing to domestic customers all year round,” states the World Pool website, but it is not just punters who are benefiting from this increased liquidity in the betting pools. The racecourses included in the World Pool programme, which this year has covered fixtures in Australia, Argentina, Britain, Germany, Ireland, Saudi Arabia, South Africa and the UAE, stand to gain around £500,000 in extra funding per race day. At the Asian Racing Conference, held a fortnight ago in Sapporo, Michael Fitzsimons, executive director of wagering products at the HKJC, outlined how further expansion of World Pool could help to combat the threat to racing's future from the rapid growth of illegal betting markets. He drew a comparison with the collaborative efforts within the music business which have been deployed in the battle against piracy.  Fitzsimons said, “As with the music industry, we must innovate together in a manner more compelling than the illegal alternative. To do this, our goal is for World Pool to provide coverage of the IFHA's top 100 races. “To meet the challenge of the illegal market, we can't and won't stop until we too have a convenient product with all the world's best races in one place, available to a global audience, through the national pool operators in every country.” European Involvement British racing – or a section of it – is currently one of the main beneficiaries of World Pool with 18 of the 33 race days this year staged in the country, at Ascot, Epsom, Goodwood, Newmarket and York. Seventeen of the IFHA's top 100 races were run in Britain last year, according to the Longines rankings, while Ireland had three on that list and hosts four World Pool days. France does not yet have World Pool fixtures but Germany's Grosser Preis von Baden card was included in 2023 and there are now six German meetings on the schedule. With World Pool having grown from 27 to 33 race days in the last year, there is speculation that it could double in number before long. Horse Racing Ireland's CEO Suzanne Eade said during a panel discussion at the ARC, “World Pool makes our good days great days.” Its presence will be felt this weekend in particular, with both days of the Irish Champions Festival included, while the sole remaining fixture in the UK this season is British Champions Day at Ascot next month. The appearance of Japanese contender Shin Emperor (Fr) in the Irish Champion Stakes on Saturday will surely only reinforce the desire from the HKJC to encourage the Japan Racing Association (JRA) to get on board with World Pool. “If the Japanese were to amalgamate with the global pools it would increase fivefold,” said Alex Frost, CEO of the UK Tote Group, who was also in attendance at the ARC and described the expansion of the World Pool to date as “breathtaking”. Racing's Silver Bullet? That gathering of racing's leaders included a debate on the relative strength or otherwise of the world's betting markets, along with the looming spectre of the aforementioned competition from the illegal markets, which are believed to be worth an estimated US$1.7 trillion. Peter V'Landys, the CEO of Australia's Racing New South Wales, joined the panel with Eade and was unequivocal in his view of World Pool. He said, “I think it has the potential to save world racing because it really highlights the major events in every country, it puts the focus on that event and punters from all around the world can bet on that particular race.” Frost was particularly encouraged by his comments.  “There is a silver bullet for global horse racing and that is tote betting done properly,” he said. “That's the most powerful message that I took out of the conference – that there is a solution.” He continued, “People have been living off steady growth but suddenly there is a bit of a wobble. Betting turnover is down in Hong Kong and Australia and everyone is suffering from a bit of a pull back other than the JRA. I sense that people are really concerned, and when you get the likes of Peter V'Landys standing up and saying there is only one solution, and Japan showing that you need a proper level of reinvestment in the racing product, I felt very invigorated by that.” He also is of the view that Britain is well positioned to benefit further from any expansion. “When you consider our level of reputation and integrity, and the time zone we are in, it is perfect for Asia,” he said. “It is more of a challenge in America.” York's Prize-Money Boost William Derby is the chief executive and clerk of the course at York racecourse, a shining beacon among tracks in the UK. Its recent Ebor meeting featured 28 races across four days, none of which offered less than £100,000 in prize-money. York's rising purses have been aided by the returns from its three World Pool days. “We're delighted to have been involved since the second wave, alongside Goodwood, in 2021,” said Derby. “That global approach is really appealing to us as a racecourse, and having people engaging in betting on our festival racing is something that we really want to encourage. “The York Race Committee took the view that we would invest all that we received  in World Pool returns and put that all back into the prize funds. So our prize funds since 2019, which was our last proper Ebor without World Pool, have gone up by what we receive from World Pool. We would love for the Saturday of the Ebor Festival to be a World Pool day as we feel that the Ebor, the Melrose, the Strensall and the City of York Stakes would be really engaging content.” And in a trickledown effect, those big days at York now help to shore up some of the lesser meetings during the year.  Derby added, “It has boosted the strength of our entire race programme, not just World Pool days. No race at York is worth less than £20,000 and all grades of racing have benefited, so the sport has benefited as whole, and everyone connected to it – be they owners, trainers or jockeys.” Along with the racecourses receiving a financial boost from World Pool fixtures there is value to be found for punters too. The Racing Post's betting expert Tom Segal referred to the benefits in his column this week.  He said, “I invariably find that the horses I'm interested in start at much bigger prices on the World Pool than they do with the traditional bookmakers or on the exchanges, given that the majority of them aren't ridden by William Buick or Ryan Moore and aren't trained by the Gosdens or Aidan O'Brien. “Of course World Pool betting isn't going to suit everyone, with its each-way terms sometimes not that favourable. But the sizeable group of punters who like a medium-sized win bet should certainly consider the World Pool when having a wager at the big meetings.” Unsurprisingly, this is a view which is wholly endorsed by Frost. “I would like people to really get behind it now,” he said. “There are lots of people who like a bet in the UK and Ireland. We've gone beyond the stage of proving the concept. It has shown that it can help enormously, and if we are going to see the roll-out that was talked about at the Asian Racing Conference then we need to be doing everything we can to get behind it.” He continued, “That's the one thing that I would like to impress upon people, that there is a solution. And if people don't believe that the world is moving fast, it's pretty remarkable to have the next [Asian Racing] conference in Saudi. That in itself is a message. To think that wagering is going to be discussed openly in Saudi – who would have thought that even two or three years ago? It's a definite barometer of change.”   The post ‘The Potential to Save World Racing’: Views on World Pool Expansion appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions. View the full article