News about Auguste Rodin

Mail Sport's racing expert Robin Goodfellow delivers his tips for Saturday's meetings at Ascot, Catterick, Stratford and Wolverhampton.  

Amo Racing have made quite the splash in the sales ring this week in spending £22million at the Tattersalls Book One Auction in Newmarket in an admirable effort to challenge Coolmore and Ballydoyle as the kingmakers in the sport.

Auguste Rodin has been given the surprise option of running in the Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe as Aidan O'Brien covers all bases ahead of Europe's greatest Flat race. The outstanding colt will retire to stud at the end of the season after a career that has seen him win Derbies in England and Ireland, a Breeders' Cup Turf in California and conquer Royal Ascot in June.

DOMINIC KING: It was the most compelling and informative weekend of the Flat season so far with a host of pointers to the defining autumn targets. At every turn, there were performances to take the breath away. Mail Sport went trackside to analyse the five key issues. Sensible Economics 

DOMINIC KING AT LEOPARDSTOWN: It had been a week of jangling nerves for William Haggas but, in the moments before the gates sprung open, his true feelings tumbled out. 'Take those worried looks off your faces!' Haggas, beaming from ear-to-ear, implored the ­owners of Economics, the gifted colt who was about to be sent off favourite for the Irish Champion Stakes. Bravado? No chance. This was the anticipation of what was to come. Haggas is not one for making extravagant public declarations but he has known for some time that Economics, a chestnut colt with a distinctive white face and four white socks, is something special. All he needed was for him to show it.

ED CHAMBERLIN: The year that shaped my life was 1981. I was an impressionable seven-year-old, aware of what was happening in the country. One moment, the news would be about a royal wedding. The next it would be about riots in Brixton and Toxteth, and hunger strikes. Things were in a mess but sport was my beacon of light. There was Botham's Ashes, Liverpool beating Real Madrid in a European Cup final but, best of all, there was racing, headed by Aldaniti's incredible story with Bob Champion in the Grand National.

Major betting company Flutter have been locked in a media rights battle with leading racecourse management group Arena Racing Company (ARC) in a civil war that many in racing should be watching on with a sense of great dread.

One of the UK and Ireland's most highly-anticipated flat racing fixtures takes place today - as thousands of fans will descend upon Royal Ascot for the Group 1 King George VI and Queen Elizabeth Stakes. With that in mind, read on as we take a look at who the favourites are with Sky Bet for this 1m4f affair. Highly accomplished four-year-old Auguste Rodin - who enters the race off the back of a victory in the Prince of Wales's Stakes - has been boosted from 6/4 to 7/4. 

The next chapter of the Troy story could be the best part yet. Aidan O'Brien's outstanding three-year-old was workmanlike in winning last week's Eclipse Stakes at Sandown in uninspiring fashion but overcame far from ideal conditions to grind out victory.

Aidan O'Brien is planning a remarkable Pan-Pacific programme for star colts City Of Troy and Auguste Rodin to define their illustrious careers. City Of Troy, the spectacular winner of the Betfred Derby last month, returns to action tomorrow for the first time since his Epsom heroics at Sandown in the Coral-Eclipse. He is a horse whose profile and ability has captured the imagination of racing fans.

Royal Ascot delivered in spades this week and here are a few highlights from a terrific five days in Berkshire… HORSE OF THE WEEK… It has to be Rosallion after his thrilling victory in the St James's Palace Stakes. Second in the Guineas at Newmarket before winning the Irish equivalent, the Richard Hannon-trained colt beat Henry Longfellow in decisive fashion with a withering turn of foot. He's a true champion miler and jockey Sean Levey insists he can be even better when he as a stronger pace to aim at.

A £100,000 bet on Fairy Godmother was turned into £300,000 in the Albany Stakes when Moore helped took his horse to an unexpected victory. Bookmakers Star Sports had priced the horse at 2-1, and looked to be in the money when Moore found himself far back halfway down, stuck behind a number of horses. The jockey maneouvered his way through the pack however, giving him just Heavens Gate to chase down, and he did just that just before the line.

DOMINIC KING AT ROYAL ASCOT: A burst of electricity, a shockwave through an industry. The Queen Mary doesn't command star billing at Royal Ascot but the significance of this latest running cannot be understated. Leovanni, with a push button change of speed, scampered away with the Group Two contest over five furlongs and, in doing so, gave owners Wathnan Racing its first victory of this year's meeting. It is unlikely to be their last. If it is, there will be some long faces. Wathnan Racing is the venture of The Emir Of Qatar and, in recent weeks, he sanctioned a spending spree of more than £25million to buy horses capable of winning here, such as Haatem, who runs in Saturday's Jersey Stakes. Leovanni, at £190,000, was relatively cheap but crucial to this mission.

Ryan Moore is anticipating a busy day of racing has he looks to ride in seven races on Wednesday at Royal Ascot.  He'll first be on board with Truly Enchanting in the Queen Mary Stakes, before hoping that Illinois and Auguste Rodin can come good in the Queen's Vase and the Prince of Wales Stakes.  Here, Betfair ambassador Moore goes through his seven rides on Wednesday.  

DOMINIC KING: Inspiral, one of the most popular horses in training, has been dramatically rerouted and set a new target at Royal Ascot. Trained by John and Thady Gosden for owners Cheveley Park Stud, Inspiral had been ante-post favourite for the Queen Anne Stakes - the Group One contest over a mile for older horses, which traditionally kicks-off the meeting. But the five-year-old mare, whose glittering CV includes a Royal Ascot success in the 2022 Coronatio Stakes and a stunning triumph at the Breeders Cup last November, is now set for a showdown with the outstanding Auguste Rodin in Wednesday's Prince Of Wales Stakes.

DOMINIC KING IN CHANTILLY: That, though, is going to change dramatically next week when the biggest flat meeting of the year will be illuminated with the biggest challenge from across The Channel this decade and excitement is building that they will annexe the biggest prizes. Ahead of the Royal meeting, Horse Power spent a morning on the gallops in Chantilly picking up the latest intelligence and discovered that hopes are soaring that a five-year run without a Gallic success in Ascot will be brought to a spectacular end. These are five horses to follow closely.

Jockeyed by Ryan Moore, who last year won on Auguste Rodin, it marks a stunning turnaround for the three-year-old. Back in May, City of Troy flopped in the QIPCO 2000 Guineas, running home in ninth, but O'Brien was always bullish about his horse's chances. Loose horse Voyage crossed the line first after unseating Pat Dobbs but it was City of Troy, surging from the middle of the pack, who claimed victory.

Outside the Champions League final, there is no bigger sporting event this weekend in Britain than at Epsom. In the same way as the Grand National and Cheltenham Gold Cup are the hooks to pull in those who love jump racing, no contest on the Flat can rival the Derby's legend-making potential. If you have even the slightest passing interest in racing, you will know about the majesty (and then tragedy) of Shergar in 1981 or the agony of Dancing Brave in 1986, the colt who just failed to win after being set, as commentator Graham Goode so memorably said: 'Oh so much to do!' On we could go. Lammtarra defied logic in 1995, winning the race on his first start as a three-year-old, when zooming through the field like a motorbike in a traffic jam; Galileo, in 2001, and Sea The Stars, in 2009, were as close to equine perfection as you will ever see at Epsom.

THE Derby is an iconic race. The most prestigious, the richest, and the undisputed British Classic that is steeped with a history of famous world-class winners. This is the Flat race in the country that transcends outside of the racing bubble. A Classic for all to enjoy and probably the Flat racing equivalent of the Grand National. So to see this year's renewal unfortunately fall apart at the seams is hard to watch. From the Guineas onwards, May centres around the trials for Derby day. For a few weeks the racing calendar clearly paves the way. Beaten horses in the Guineas that look capable of stepping up in trip, then into trials at Chester, Lingfield and York, with the Derrinstown in Ireland a useful pointer in between.

DOMINIC KING: It was the groans and the gasps that got you. Just 52 seconds into the most eagerly-awaited 2000 Guineas in a decade, the anxious change in Ryan Moore's body language and the increased pitch of the racecourse commentator's call made clear that history books would remain closed. City Of Troy was not going to bound down Newmarket's Rowley Mile and those instinctive reactions of everyone present showed, once again, why there is no place quite like a sporting arena - whether it is a course, an arena or a stadium - for capturing emotion in its purest form. Perhaps City Of Troy will redeem his reputation in the coming months, as his older stablemate Auguste Rodin did last summer. Nobody connected to the colt envisaged a situation on Saturday like the calamity that unfolded and his trainer, jockey and owners don't tend to make many wrong calls.

Fans watch hundreds of races every year, tens of thousands over a lifetime, but only a few performances are etched into the memory. Maybe it is because of an emotional attachment to a winner. More likely a few precious seconds get frozen in time because they were something extraordinary. That is what the spectators heading to Newmarket hope to witness with City Of Troy in the Qipco 2,000 Guineas.

William Buick, the champion, used strategic tactics on 25-1 shot Rebel's Romance to scoop the £2.7 million on the Dubai Sheema Classic, giving the trainer Charlie Appleby's stable a big boost at the start of the Flat season. With a horse racing in the colors of Dubai's chief Sheik Mohammed, the founder of Dubai, Macaulay, it was a victory for Newmarket-based Appleby to win the biggest Turf race on the Dubai World Cup card. But with his stable in a transition stage and lacking the strength in depth in Rebel's Romance Appleby, he now has a flagbearer to run around the world.

As he prepares to ride the likes of Sibelius and Auguste Rodin, Ryan Moore is looking forward to a big weekend in Dubai for the Sheema Classic in Meydan. Moore is especially keen to compete on board again after winning the Breeders' Cup Turf in Santa Anita in November and the Irish Champion Stakes in Leopardstown with him. Moore, the Betfair ambassador, takes you through his six rides this weekend.

Robin Goodfellow, Mail Sport's racing specialist, shares his advice for Saturday's meetings in Meydan, Musselburgh, Haydock, Wolverhampton, and Carlisle.