Top racehorses head for US

12 October 2001

Sakhee, Fantastic Light and Noverre are flying out to New York today, in preparation for Belmont’s Breeder Cup meeting

Sakhee, runaway winner of last Sunday’s Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe, will have his next race in the Breeders’ Cup Turf at Belmont on October 27.

Considered the best middle distance horse in Europe, Sakhee had been thought a possible for the Dubai Champion Stakes at Newmarket on Saturday week, following his devastating victory in Paris at the weekend. But the decision was taken by owner-breeder Sheikh Hamdan and his team in the Godolphin stable to send him to New York to take on the Americans in their own back yard.

Sakhee will join his stable companions Fantastic Light and Noverre on a special flight from Stansted to New York today (Friday, 12 October). Fantastic Light is due to take on his old rival Galileo in another epic duel for the Breeders’ Cup Classic, while Noverre goes for the Breeders’ Cup Mile.

The three Godolphin trans-Atlantic raiders will spend 24 hours in quarantine and then be trained from the Godolphin barn at Belmont.