Cidago

Whizbang Makes a Statement in the Cihangir Stakes The Cihangir Stakes, also staged at Istanbul Veliefendi Racecourse over 1600m on turf, produced a clear and confident winner in Whizbang. Ridden by Selim Kaya, the Sadler’s Joy - Value Chain, by Dr Fong colt enjoyed a smooth trip just behind the early pace set by Dark Veyron. Turning for home in third, Whizbang moved up strongly on the inside and took command before the final 400m. From there, the race was effectively under control. He lengthened away in the closing stages and crossed the line 4.5 lengths clear of Silent Treatment. Dire Wolf finished third, with Joyful Forever fourth and Snow Leopard fifth. Whizbang stopped the clock in 1:38.74, recording his first win of the season. The manner of victory was the key point: he travelled well, found his rhythm early, and finished like a colt who can be taken seriously on the Turkish 2,000 Guineas / Erkek Tay Deneme trail.

Piha Lands the Nadas Stakes with a Late Kick The Nadas Stakes, run at Istanbul Veliefendi Racecourse on May 1, brought together 3yo fillies over 1600m on turf. The G3 contest went to Piha, who produced a well-timed late run to score an important group-race victory. By Bodemeister out of Dance Star, by Sea The Stars, Piha was ridden by Hışman Çizik. She settled in mid-division during the early stages and turned for home in sixth, but once angled out in the straight, she began to build momentum strongly. In the final stages, Piha wore down Vintage on the inside and got up to win by a neck. Loco Sugar finished third, followed by Veragorn and La Higuera. The winning time was 1:39.34. For Piha, this was a valuable breakthrough at group level and a performance that suggested she still has more to offer around the mile.

Shred The Gnar Grinds Out a Gritty Win in the La Troienne Another key Grade 1 event on the Churchill Downs card was the La Troienne Stakes. In this roughly 1700m dirt battle for fillies and mares, Shred The Gnar came out on top. Bred on an Into Mischief - Aspen Light / Bernardini cross, the mare secured the victory under the guidance of Luis Saez for trainer Brian Lynch, followed by Fully Subscribed in second and Bless The Broken in third.

The biggest headline of the day was the #KentuckyOaks. In this G1 contest for 3yo fillies over around 1 1/8 miles, the winner was Always A Runner. Trained by Chad Brown and ridden by Jose Ortiz, she came into the race with a strong pedigree: Gun Runner - Always Carina, by Malibu Moon. Meaning finished second, while Counting Stars took third. The official final time was 1:48.82.

DARYZ is back in style. A dominant return at ParisLongchamp, landing the G1 Prix Ganay with class and authority. The Arc champion reminds everyone why he’s one of racing’s brightest stars. @AgaKhanStuds #Daryz #PrixGanay #ParisLongchamp #HorseRacing

Türkiye Jockey League returns soon. First introduced in 2010 by Cidago Horse Racing, this special project was created to reflect the prestige, rhythm, and competitive spirit of Turkish horse racing. A stage where ambition meets speed, and every ride writes a new story. #JockeyLeague #JokeyLigi #HorseRacing #TurkishRacing

OBS just reminded the market how aggressive the top end can be. A son of #Flightline sold for a record $10.5 million to Zedan #Racing at the OBS April #Sale, while a Jackie’s Warrior filly earlier made $2.3 million, the highest price ever paid for a filly at an OBS #juvenile auction. In other words, elite 2yo money is not cooling off it is still hunting hard.

Asia is setting the tempo. The first 2026 LONGINES World’s Best #Racehorse Rankings put #KaYingRising on top with a rating of 128, ahead of #RomanticWarrior on 124 and #ForeverYoung on 123. The broader signal is clear: right now, the sport’s center of gravity feels firmly tilted toward Hong Kong and the wider Asian circuit.

Poetry in Motion takes command. The #winner of the other notable trophy race of the day, the KV-8 M. Halim Celaloğlu Stakes, was Poetry In Motion. Run in Istanbul over 2000 metres on the synthetic surface, the 4-year-old, partnered by S. Kaya, stopped the clock in 2:03.14. Attalos finished second, Pythagorean Theory was third, Altınsima fourth, and Dagmar fifth. What determined the outcome here was not class alone, but the way the race was built and controlled. Poetry In Motion, who went into the race as a #strong favourite, did not buckle under that weight; instead, he carried the race exactly where it needed to go. Despite pressure from the Attalos and Pythagorean Theory line, he never let the structure of the contest slip and once again showed how reliable a #profile he offers over 2000 metres on synthetic. For the #CatalinaCruiser - One Show Only runner, this was a result that underlined not just his form, but his race character as well. Some races do not make much noise, but still deliver a serious message. Yesterday, the M. Halim Celaloğlu Stakes was exactly that sort of race. Poetry In Motion did not merely justify favouritism; he also produced the kind of performance that should have him read from a higher tier in the synthetic middle-distance division. In short, this victory felt like something more than just another win written onto the board.

Tonbi makes a serious statement. Yesterday’s G3 Ali Doğan Ünlü Stakes at #Istanbul Veliefendi developed into a hard-fought finish, and the winner was #Tonbi. Run over 1400 metres on turf for Thoroughbreds aged three and up, the race saw the 4yo, ridden by Halis Karataş, score in 1:22.78, with Special Man finishing second and #Tulumar third. Riyakar, who had attracted a notable share of the pre-race attention, was scratched. It would be too narrow to read this simply as a Group 3 victory. Tonbi, although not sitting right at the center of the main favourite line beforehand, was the horse who strengthened at exactly the right moment. In a race that opened up late, he managed to get past both Special Man and the strongly supported Tulumar, and in doing so made himself more than just the winner of the day. He now looks like a horse who deserves to be read more seriously on this trip and this surface. For the Approve - Neferu horse, the result felt like a renewed confirmation on the track of the ability already visible on paper. A result like this in a race with the weight and standing of the Ali Doğan Ünlü Stakes does not mean the same thing for every horse. Some horses win a race; others use that race to rewrite their #season file. Tonbi’s #victory yesterday belongs much closer to the second category. This did not feel like a horse merely producing one good run on one day. It felt like a horse staking a proper claim over 1400 metres on #turf.

Where #Lovcen won the G1 Satsuki Sho (Japanese 2000 Guineas), with Realize Sirius second and Reichsadler third. That was more than a Classic result. In #Japan, the value of a major 3yo win is never only about the race itself; it is also about what sort of future #stallion profile may be taking shape. Lovcen’s pedigree makes that angle even more interesting, as he is by #World Premiere and out of a mare by Giant’s Causeway. This was not just a colt winning a #Classic it was a new colt entering the conversation in bloodstock terms as well. What made the result feel even more important was the way Japanese Classics often function as early declarations about which #sire lines are beginning to speak louder. Sometimes the winner is the story. Sometimes the deeper story is the male line behind him. Lovcen’s victory had that second quality. #ラヴセン #種牡馬 #競馬 #スタリオン #皐月賞

Power Song gives the spring picture a little more shape Some races do not need Group 1 status to matter. They matter because of where they fall in the season, what kind of #horses they attract, and what they reveal about the colts still trying to sort themselves into a proper hierarchy. That was the feel of the Tevfik Çelikoğlu #Stakes at #Istanbul at today and Power Song used it well, winning the KV-8 contest for 3yo Thoroughbreds over 1900 metres on turf at a moment when the spring picture is beginning to sharpen. By Voodoo Song out of Eastenders (by Pressing), Power Song was not arriving as an unknown quantity. He had already moved through serious company, and this latest result gave his profile a different kind of firmness. It did not feel like a colt springing a one-off surprise; it felt like a horse learning how to carry his ability into #races that ask a little more of him. That distinction matters at this stage of the year. What #PowerSong achieved at today was not simply another line in the form book. He gave himself a little more definition. In a crop where many 3yo are still trying to turn promise into standing, he came away from the Tevfik Çelikoğlu looking less like a possibility and more like a colt with a proper place in the season.

UPAMECANO returns with a statement win and re-enters the Gazi picture #Upamecano made a commanding return at Ankara on April 18, landing the Ali Orhan Birol #Stakes over 1400 metres on turf and immediately putting himself back at the centre of the #Turkish Classic conversation. This was not just a seasonal comeback. It was the kind of return that changes the tone around a colt. The unbeaten colt is now five for five, and that matters. An undefeated record always attracts attention, but what gives this one extra weight is timing. He didn't come back in a quiet conditions race or in a soft reintroduction. He came back in a meaningful stakes test and won, which makes the #performance feel less like a tune-up and more like a declaration. Upamecano had already built a serious profile at two, and this latest win gives that profile fresh momentum at exactly the right stage of the season. In a year where the road to the #GaziKoşusu is beginning to take shape, this was the sort of comeback that puts a horse straight back into the top tier of the discussion. Undefeated, proven, and now back in winning form, Upamecano has made himself impossible to ignore.

Burnham Square leaves the strongest visual impression For pure dominance, nothing on the day topped Burnham Square in the Grade 2 Elkhorn Stakes at Keeneland. Racing Post’s result shows that he won by 9¾ lengths, and Keeneland’s own coverage described the performance as a stakes-record display. On a card full of meaningful winners, Burnham Square was the one who made the race look lopsided. When a graded turf stake at a mile and a half turns into a procession, that is not just form — it is theatre.

White Abarrio spoils the rematch At Oaklawn, the big narrative before the Grade 2 Oaklawn Handicap centred on the rematch between #Sovereignty and #Journalism. Instead, #WhiteAbarrio swept past both of them to win. The #KentuckyDerby news report framed it exactly that way: the race had been billed around last year’s major 3yo names, but the veteran seven-year-old seized the stage himself. It was a result with real weight because White Abarrio was not pulling off a novelty upset; he was adding another high-end score to an already elite resume.

Convergent shows grit as well as form in the John Porter The Group 3 John Porter Stakes went to Convergent, who recovered from a moment of traffic trouble two furlongs out, got into the clear, and surged late to beat Al Aasy. That detail matters because this was not a smooth, gift-wrapped victory; it was a race in which the winner briefly lost momentum and still found enough in reserve to reassert. Those are the sort of wins that can age well once the middle-distance pattern gets stronger deeper into the spring.

Sukanya arrives late and changes the Fred Darling story The Group 3 Fred Darling Stakes looked ready to fall to the well-backed Touleen, but #Sukanya swept past in the final 100 yards to score by three-quarters of a length. That closing move was the race’s defining image. From a news angle, this mattered because it interrupted a fairly tidy pre-race narrative and reminded everyone that early-season fillies’ trials are rarely as orderly as the market wants them to be. Touleen shaped like a filly of substance, but Sukanya was the one who actually finished the job.