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UK traveller Mondialiste won his second North American G1 race when he took out the Arlington Million in Chicago to go with his victory in last year’s Woodbine Mile.
The David O’Meara-trained Mondialiste was ridden by his regular jockey Daniel Tudhope and produced impressive acceleration to beat Kasaqui by a neck and the Aidan O’Brien-trained three-year-old Deauville.
Mondialiste, which means “globalist” in French, had also finished second to champion mare Tepin in the GI Breeders’ Cup Mile last October.The bay also ventured to Sha Tin for the GI Hong Kong Mile last December but could only manage 12th in that event.
This year he was seventh in Chantilly’s G1 Prix d’Ispahan before an 11th behind Tepin in the GI Queen Anne Stakes at Royal Ascot but bounced back with a second in the G2 York Stakes last month.“We stepped him up to a mile and a quarter at York and he ran a really good race, and once we saw that he handled the trip okay, we had this race in the back of our mind,” said David O’Meara.
“We thought we’d bring him over because he performed so well this side of the water last year.”Mondialiste, by champion sire Galileo, was bred by Gerard and Alain Wertheimer from their mare Occupandiste, who won the G1 Prix Maurice de Gheest at Deauville nearly 19 years ago to the day. She also won that year’s G1 Prix de la Foret.
Deauville shortened in Cox Plate betting following his performance in the Arlington Million.Deauville was opposing older rivals at Arlington and his jockey Seamie Heffernan was pleased with the performance of the colt who jumped from the widest gate.
In other Arlington results on Saturday:-• The Chad Brown-trained Sea Calisi formed part of a big treble for jockey Florent Geroux with her win in the G1 Beverley D Stakes.
She ran on well in the straight and did enough to hold Al’s Gal to win by half a length with the front-running Zipessa another length and a quarter behind in third.• Aidan O'Brien was denied a hat-trick of victories in the G1 Secretariat Stakes when Long Island Sound was beaten by the Chad Brown-trained Beach Patrol.
Ridden by Florent Geroux, Beach Patrol ground down Long Island Sound to win by a head with American Patriot three quarters of a length further back in third.Long Island Sound also shortened for the Cox Plate at Moonee Valey in October on the back of his placing as O'Brien had previously used the Secretariat Stakes as a preparatory race for Adelaide and Highland Reel both winning en route to Melbourne in previous years.
• A Melbourne Cup bid was mentioned for Da Big Hoss after he defeated the Willie Mullins-trained Clondaw Warrior, another boun d for Melbourne, in the G3 American St Leger in yet another stakes win for Florent Geroux.• AT SARATOGA Saturday’s feature program was abandoned due to unsafe conditions caused by a severe thunderstorm.
The final six races of the program were cancelled including the G1 Fourstardave for older turf males and the G2 Adirondack Stakes for 2YO fillies.The Fourstardave has been rescheduled for August 20 and the Adirondack for August 19.