weekend preview

Some of Europe's kingpins come out to play over the next two days, with a quartet of Group 1 contests and some key Arc trials and juvenile staging posts to savour. Saturday's action centres around Haydock Park's G1 Betfair Sprint Cup, where Shadwell's Almeraq (Dark Angel) bids to put a disappointing effort in the July Cup behind him. Springing a surprise in Royal Ascot's Queen Elizabeth II Jubilee Stakes, the William Haggas-trained four-year-old has heavy ground to contend with after a downpour hit the Merseyside venue into Friday. Angus Gold...

   Deep into the summer of 2026, one of the big stories so far has been the hegemony of the O'Briens and while that could easily continue this weekend, the G1 Juddmonte Irish Oaks is far from certain to follow recent trends. Joseph has three in the Curragh mile-and-a-half Classic and Aidan has five, so it is a clear case of numerical superiority as well as having the right material with Owning Hill represented by the scintillating Oaks heroine Thundering On (Frankel). However, the trio that arrive in Kildare to...

He's the one that the normally uneffusive Ryan Moore describes as "rare" and "special" and "exciting" and perhaps the one of all the Coolmore contingent that has really captured the public imagination. In the wake of Wootton Bassett's sad and untimely demise, Constitution River has stepped forward to illuminate the potency of his sire with a Classic triumph against all the odds. Heading to Sandown's G1 Coral-Eclipse on Saturday a Classic winner against all the odds, he has that untouchable air and the confidence of the biggest stable in world...

Stop us if you've heard this before: a seven-figure son of Gun Runner from the barn of Chad Brown has been sent to New Orleans to make his sophomore debut in Saturday's GII Fasig-Tipton Risen Star Stakes. Two years ago it was Sierra Leone who made the trip up from South Florida off a narrow defeat in the GII Remsen Stakes in the second of his two juvenile appearances. With Tyler Gafflione at the controls, the lanky colt took full advantage of the long straight in the Big Easy to...

A cool $15.6 million in prize money is up for grabs Saturday afternoon at Kentucky Downs, as a 12-race program features no fewer than five graded events each worth at least $2 million at distances from 6 1/2 to 12 furlongs. The GII Kentucky Turf Cup wraps up the main events on the afternoon, and a field of 11 will head to the post for a circuit of the undulating turf course, with a berth in the GI Breeders' Cup Turf on the line. Fort Washington (War Front) is arguably...

Before Sovereignty (Into Mischief) and Journalism (Curlin), there was Fierceness (City of Light) and Sierra Leone (Gun Runner). While we patiently wait for round three between the top two 3-year-olds in the country, last year's two standout sophomores and 'TDN Rising Stars' Fierceness and Sierra Leone will meet for the fifth time and first this year in Saturday's GI Whitney S. at Saratoga, a 'Win and You're In' for the GI Breeders' Cup Classic. Fierceness defeated Sierra Leone in both the GII Jim Dandy S. and GI Travers S. at...