19 July 2018

The Lady's not for turning.

This Scat Daddy filly, twice Royal Ascot winner, won't be turning round the Berkshire track any more or any other race course, for that matter. It has been announced that the sensational Wesley Ward-trained Lady Aurelia has been retired. The four-year-old sprinter stamped her mark on the English racing scene when she won the 2016 Queen Mary Stakes at the royal meeting and Group 1 King's Stand Stakes the following year. Lady Aurelia also proved that she was good as the males when she triumphed in the Group 1 Darley Prix Morny at Deauville which led to her being crowned the twenty-sixth winner of the Cartier Award for Champion two-year-old filly.

Whose Cider you on!

A new exclusive sponsorship of the Cheltenham Gold Cup has just been announced. The Magners Irish Cider group has struck a four-year agreement with Jockey Club Racecourses which means that Prestbury Park will stage the first Magners Cheltenham Gold Cup next year. The agreement also allows for the County Tipperary-based Magners to be the presenting partner for the four-day spectacular which will be billed as 'The Festival, presented by Magners'. Jason Ash, Chief Marketing Officer of C&C Group plc, owners of Magners, commented: "Magners Cider is 100 per cent Irish, made in Clonmel, County Tipperary, where William Magner first started making cider over 80 years ago.” As a matter of interest, the cider was originally produced as "Bulmers" and continues to be sold under that name in the Republic of Ireland, although the product is no longer owned by H. P. Bulmer.

For the High Jump

The 2012 Gold Cup at Royal Ascot winner, formerly trained by Saeed bin Suroor, seems to be enjoying his new career as a show-jumper since his retirement from racing. Colour Vision, raced for four years under Rules before retiring from the track aged five in September 2013. The ten-year-old grey was acquired by Bev Seymour through the Godolphin rehoming programme in 2015 who commented: “He loves to jump — it was a very easy job for me to train him. He is naturally athletic and he has a very good stride for show-jumping. The transition to show-jumping was a bit chaotic in the beginning as when we got to showjumping shows, he thought he was going to race and was very, very excitable.”