Anamoe honoured as Australian Racehorse of the Year

Anamoe’s brilliant 2022/23 campaign was recognised in Perth on Thursday, 23 November, as he was crowned Australian Racehorse of the Year.

Godolphin’s most prolific G1 winner, who now stands as a Darley stallion at Kelvinside, rattled off six G1 victories during a sensational four-year-old season that included a famous success in the Cox Plate.

Anamoe received the Champion Middle Distance Horse award as well, while In Secret picked up the Champion Three-Year-Old Filly accolade following top-level wins in the Coolmore Stud Stakes and Newmarket Handicap.

On the track, First Mission narrowly failed to emulate Maxfield and Proxy as he went down by a nose in the G2 Clark Stakes at Churchill Downs on Friday.

Central Avenue ran well at the same course when taking third in Saturday’s G2 Golden Rod Stakes. Pretty Mischievous also finished third in the same race 12 months ago and Central Avenue could follow a similar programme to the three-time G1 winner at Fair Grounds over the winter.

February Stakes winner Lemon Pop will aim for a second G1 victory on the JRA circuit this season in the Champions Cup at Chukyo on Sunday. The five-year-old bounced back from a disappointing run at Meydan in the spring with a stunning 30-length victory in the NAR-G1 Mile Championship Nambu Hai in October.

Veteran African Gold shows no sign of slowing down, despite turning nine in just over a month’s time, and the son of Stay Gold is set to line up in Nakayama’s G2 Stayers Stakes 24 hours earlier.

Silver Knott has produced a string of good efforts in North America and last season’s Breeders' Cup Juvenile Turf runner-up features among the nominations for the G1 Hollywood Derby at Del Mar on Saturday.