Sword Dancer Likely to Have International Flavor
Sharing the spotlight with the Grade 1 Travers on August 29, the Grade 1, $1 million Sword Dancer Invitational is likely to have a European flavor in its 41st running.
The 1 ½-mile turf event has attracted multiple Group 1 winner Flintshire, who is probable to run for French trainer Andre Fabre and will look for his third Grade 1 win on as many continents.
Flintshire has already ventured stateside once, finishing second in last year's Grade 1 Breeders' Cup Turf behind Main Sequence. The 5-year-old son of Dansili has notched stakes wins in the Group 1 Juddmonte Grand Prix de Paris and Group 3 Prix du Lys Longines in 2013, and Group 1 Longines Hong Kong Vase to close out his 2014 campaign. Additionally, the globetrotting dark bay has eight second-place finishes on his resume, four of which have come against Group or Grade 1 competition, including the 2014 edition of the Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe.
Flintshire is winless in 2015, but coming off a runner-up finish to two-time Arc winner Treve in the Group 1 Grand Prix de Saint-Cloud.
Billabong, a 6-year-old Moroccan-bred, is likely to compete for trainer Pascal Bary. The son of Irish sire Gentlewave spent much of his career racing in Morocco before joining Bary's barn in Europe and becoming one of only a few Moroccan-bred horses to win a stakes race in France. The gray horse is coming off a third-place finish in the Group 3 Prix de Reux at Deauville.
Also probable for the Sword Dancer is Guardini, a multiple group stakes winner trained by Jean-Pierre Carvalho owned by Australia Racing Stables. The Corsican, fourth in the Group 1 Prince of Wales at Royal Ascot, is possible.
The Grade 2, $400,000 Ketel One Ballston Spa is also likely to contain a European entrant, New Providence, from the yard of Hugo Palmer. The 3-year-old daughter of Bahamian Bounty has two Group 3 wins to her credit, including the Summer Stakes at York two starts back.
Source: NYRA Communications