Weekend Review / Editor / 17 August 2009 / Leave a comment Free £25 Bet

Fantastic performance from superstar filly lights up big weekend of racing.

The Henry Candy-trained Markab justified favouritism and gained a richly-deserved success in the Great St Wilfrid Stakes at Ripon on Saturday.

Having been forced to race alone when slightly unfortunate in both the Wokingham and Steward's Cup, Markab gained compensation when narrowly landing the famous sprint from game front-runner Tamagin and Advanced.

Over at Newbury, the quirky Balthazaar's Gift landed the biggest success of his career when sprinting clear to pick up the Group 2 Hungerford stakes. Given an expert ride by Philip Robinson, Balthazaar's Gift was ridden patiently and produced between horses before surging clear of Regal Parade and Plum Pudding, in the process landing a first success under the tutelage of Clive Cox.

Godolphin continued their superb run of form when Kite Wood enhanced his St Leger claims with a front-running win in the Group 3 Geoffrey Freer stakes. The son of Galileo is challenging for favouritism for the final Classic of the season after winning with plenty in hand. The John Gosden-trained Azmeel looked a bright prospect after comfortably maintaining his unbeaten record in the listed Washington Singer stakes. After a promising debut success, Azmeel found the step up in grade well within his compass, pushed out under hands and heels by Ryan Moore and earning quotes as short as 16/1 for the 2,000 Guineas next year (currently [24.0] on Betfair.

The Group 1 Prix Jacques Le Marois at Deauville provided the highlight on Sunday, where the outstanding Goldikova produced an unbelievable display to annihilate a high-class field. Having produced a majestic display to land the Group 1 Prix Rothschild at the same track two weeks ago, the 2008 Breeders' Cup Mile winner produced her career-best performance when showing an electric turn of foot to beat Group 2 Summer Mile winner Aqlaam by six lengths, with Lockinge winner Virtual five lengths back in third. There was British success in the Group 2 Guillaume d'Ornano as the Michael Jarvis-trained Sri Putra got up late for a cosy success under Frankie Dettori.

The Curragh also showcased a strong card on Sunday with three Group races featuring. Dermot Weld landed the Group 2 Royal Whip stakes with Casual Conquest, who came out on top in a lengthy duel with Curtain Call, before sending out another of his star performers in the shape of 2008 French Derby runner-up Famous Name to land a third impressive success in succession in the Group 3 Desmond stakes. The Group 3 Phoenix Sprint stakes provided an exciting finish with Girouette just coming out on top from the fast-finishing Perfect Polly.

Tags: 2000 Guineas, Balthazaar's Gift, Casual Conquest, Girouette, Goldikova, Great St Wilfrid Stakes, Kite Wood, Markab, Prix Jacques Le Marois