Rebel's Romance

The TDN Writers' Room, which is presented by Keeneland, took a different route this week, handicapping every Breeders' Cup race. How did we do? We'll know late Saturday evening. Here are the highlights of the picks made by Zoe Cadman, Bill Finley and Randy Moss. FRIDAY: Breeders' Cup Juvenile Turf Sprint: Predicting that Aidan O'Brien is going to have a huge Friday, Finley picked True Love (Ire) (No Nay Never), pointing out that the filly is coming off a Group I win in the Cheveley Park S. and looks to...

Rebel's Romance (Dubawi) and Notable Speech (Dubawi) look set to spearhead a top-class team for Charlie Appleby at next month's Breeders' Cup at Del Mar, a meeting at which the Godolphin trainer has excelled since saddling his first winner in 2013. Appleby took his tally of Breeders' Cup winners to 11 at Del Mar last year when Rebel's Romance won the Turf for a second time, having also been successful at Keeneland in 2022. More recently, the seven-year-old gained the ninth top-level victory of his career when heading back Stateside...

Two-time Breeders' Cup winner Rebel's Romance (Ire) (Dubawi {Ire}) made a victorious return to U.S. soil with an effortless victory in the GI Joe Hirsch Turf Classic at Aqueduct Saturday. Sent off at 3-5, the globetrotting veteran was under a snug hold while prompting Redistricting (GB) (Kingman {GB}) through an opening quarter in :24.78. He took control as the half went up in :49.26 and loped along on a clear lead through moderate splits from there. Let loose midway on the final bend, Rebel's Romance continued to find more down...

Champion Rebel's Romance (Ire) (Dubawi {Ire}), who has a pair of GI Longines Breeders' Cup Turf wins on his impressive resume, will return to U.S. soil to contest the GI Joe Hirsch Turf Classic at Aqueduct Racetrack next Saturday. A $14-million earner for Godolphin, the homebred enters off a victory in Germany's G1 Grosser Preis von Berlin Stakes at Hoppegarten, an effort that followed a respectable third for the second consecutive year in Europe's top 12-furlong race of the summer, the G1 King George VI & Queen Elizabeth Stakes at...

Twenty years ago, Dubawi claimed his third Group 1 victory in the Prix Jacques Le Marois. On Sunday, Sajir, his third-generation male-line descendant, claimed his own first top-level win, also in Deauville, when lowering the colours of hot favourite Lazzat in the Prix Maurice de Gheest. In TDN on Friday, Ted Voute told Adam Houghton how the team behind Prince Faisal and his homebred Sajir were "quietly quite excited" in the build-up to a race which could seal Sajir's place at stud. Well, they can be loudly very excited now,...

Sunday, Hoppegarten, Germany, post time: 15:40, WESTMINSTER 135TH GROSSER PREIS VON BERLIN-G1, €155,000, 3yo/up, 12fT Field: Cold Heart (Brz) (Alpha), Junko (GB) (Intello {Ger}), Narrativo (Ger) (Adlerflug {Ger}), Rebel's Romance (Ire) (Dubawi {Ire}), Straight (Ger) (Zarak {Fr}), Nastaria (GB) (Outstrip {GB}). TDN Verdict: Godolphin's globetrotting superstar Rebel's Romance has saluted seven times at the highest level and will bid for a repeat success having annexed the 2022 renewal of this contest. He will head postward at prohibitive odds and has little to fear coming back off a repeat third-place finish...

ASCOT, UK -- Two years, two geldings, two King Georges. Francis Graffard has carried all before him in his native France this season and he returned triumphant to Ascot on Saturday with Calandagan his willing accomplice to repeat the success last year of stable-mate Goliath. "I'd prefer to have a very good gelding than a bad colt," the trainer quipped in response to a query as to the missing anatomy of the son of Gleneagles. It is hard to argue with that assertion when scrutinising Calandagan's increasingly impressive race record,...

There is regrettably no three-year-old to lay down a marker for the Classic generation in this year's King George VI and Queen Elizabeth Stakes, but the five-runner contest nevertheless provides an intriguing contest between a select group of the best older horses in training.  The Aga Khan Studs' highly consistent Calandagan (Gleneagles), who landed his deserved Group 1 spoils in last month's Grand Prix de Saint-Cloud, is narrowly favoured ahead of the St Leger and Coronation Cup winner Jan Brueghel (Galileo). Representing the leading stables of France and Ireland, their...

Friday, Ascot, post time: 14:25, THE FLEXJET PAT EDDERY STAKES-Listed, £50,000, 2yo, 7fT Field: A Bit Of Spirit (Ire) (Palace Pire {GB}), Cape Ashizuri (Ire) (St Mark's Basilica {Fr}), Italica (GB) (Sergei Prokofiev, Reciprocated (GB) (Havana Grey {GB}), Sirius A (Ire) (Palace Pier {GB}), Time To Turn (GB) (Dark Angel {Ire}), Tricky Tel (GB) (Ubettabelieveit {Ire}). TDN Verdict: Unbeaten and impressive at Nottingham and Carlisle, Reciprocated will be a warm order to continue the momentum in this often-informative race won in recent times by Chindit and Rosallion. A Bit Of...

French ace Calandagan (Gleneagles), G1 Coronation Cup winner Jan Brueghel (Galileo), globetrotter Rebel's Romance (Dubawi) and star filly Kalpana (Study Of Man) headline the confirmations for Saturday's G1 King George VI and Queen Elizabeth Stakes at Ascot. Worth a record £1.5m in 2025, the King George is Britain's richest all-aged contest and the most valuable race ever run at Ascot. Francis-Henri Graffard is chasing back-to-back victories following Goliath's surprise win in 2024. This year the trainer will be represented by Calandagan, who gained a deserved Group 1 success in the...

It has been a strangely discombobulating week in some respects. It started in Westminster last Monday with the All-Party Parliamentary Group issuing its stark warning of the triple threat to the industry posed by potential betting duty harmonisation, affordability checks and an overdue Levy reform. This came on the back of an industry update in Newmarket the previous week at which the TBA chairman Philip Newton warned of a potential catastrophic collapse in the supply chain of young Thoroughbreds in Britain. Then, stepping through the golden gates of Royal Ascot,...

Friday, York, post time: 15:45, BOODLES YORKSHIRE CUP-G2, £192,200, 4yo/up, 13f 188yT Field: Rebel's Romance (Ire) (Dubawi {Ire}), Sweet William (Ire) (Sea The Stars {Ire}), Alsakib (GB) (Kingman {GB}), Continuous (Jpn) (Heart's Cry {Jpn}), Epic Poet (Ire) (Lope De Vega {Ire}). TDN Verdict: For so long a top-class mile-and-a-half specialist, the dual Breeders' Cup Turf hero and seven-times Group 1 and Grade I winner Rebel's Romance tries something different here and a five-pound penalty probably won't prove any kind of stop on his superior talent. Ballydoyle's Continuous was disappointing last...