Mar

Kylian Mbappe scores the only goal of France’s win in Turkiye, but Real Madrid striker immediately forced off by injury.

Kylian Mbappe scored the only goal of the game before having to come off grimacing with a knee injury, as France won 1-0 in Turkiye in the UEFA Nations League in new coach Zinedine Zidane’s first game in charge on Friday.

The Real Madrid star was moved out to the left wing by his new coach after being used through the middle of the France attack under former coach Didier Deschamps at the recent World Cup, which he ended as the top scorer with 10 goals.

It was from the left that Mbappe, France’s all-time top scorer, notched his 67th international goal, controlling and firing into the net low at the near post after being set up by Michael Olise.

He winced in pain as his teammates came across to celebrate the goal at the Kocaeli Stadium in Izmit, about 100km outside Istanbul.

Mbappe tried to carry on after receiving treatment, but eventually slumped to the ground and looked concerned as he prodded the outside of his left knee, before walking off to be replaced by Desire Doue.

France and Real will now nervously wait to discover the extent of the injury, with Les Bleus playing three more games over the next 10 days before the club season resumes.

The sight of his star player and skipper coming off overshadowed Zidane’s first match since being appointed coach in late July on a deal to 2030.

The France legend and 1998 World Cup winner is making his return to elite coaching for the first time since his second stint in charge of Madrid ended in 2021.

France, beaten in the semifinals at the World Cup by eventual winners Spain, are in Group A1 of this edition of the Nations League and will now go to Brussels to face Belgium on Monday. Belgium won 2-0 away to Italy on Friday.

Zidane, whose last match as a player came for France against Italy in the 2006 World Cup final, will then make his home debut as coach against the Italians at the Stade de France next Friday.

His first team selection was not dramatically different from the side that regularly played at the World Cup, although Bournemouth’s Adrien Truffert was in at left-back while Manchester City’s Rayan Cherki came into the starting XI.

Olise, the Bayern Munich star who lit up the World Cup, was unlucky not to open the scoring late in the first half when his superb strike was tipped over by home goalkeeper Ugurcan Cakir.

France goalkeeper Mike Maignan responded at the start of the second half as he tipped over an attempt by Abdulkerim Bardakci for Turkiye, who finished bottom of their group at the World Cup, despite a 3-2 win over cohosts the United States.

Mbappe’s goal came shortly after, and the visitors later saw Jules Kounde hit the post before Turkiye were reduced to 10 men late on.

Cakir came flying out of his area to halt Bradley Barcola as the France substitute raced through on goal. German referee Felix Zwayer initially waved play on before undertaking a VAR review, after which he decided the goalkeeper had handled the ball, which meant a red card.

Turkiye, coached by former Italian international Vincenzo Montella, will host Italy next on Monday.

One of the more remarkable streaks in the history of this nearly century-old racetrack is still alive.

It’s just not the one most people expected.

Gold Phoenix’s bid to join Kelso as the only horses to win the same major stakes race in North America in five straight years ended Saturday evening when the 8-year-old gelding finished fourth behind Test Score and two others in the $300,000 Del Mar Handicap.

“Got beat, I think less than a length, and got stopped there at the top of the lane,” trainer Phil D’Amato said. “That’s grass racing.”

More specifically, it’s grass racing at Del Mar against Graham Motion, the East Coast trainer who in recent years has been more successful here than a margarita concession stand.

Test Score was the eighth horse Motion has sent to Del Mar for a summer stakes race since 2022 — and the eighth to win.

“It’s crazy,” said assistant trainer Alice Clapham, who accompanied Test Score on his trip west. “It’s one of those things you just pinch yourself. You know it’s going to stop at some point but you just go along for the ride.”

Gold Phoenix’s owners know the feeling.

They never expected their gelding to win this race four straight times, an unprecedented feat at Del Mar, but each year since 2022 he found a way, prevailing three times by less than half a length and once by 1¼ lengths.

This time the 11-10 favorite found himself on the wrong side of a five-horse photo finish. He nosed out Mondego but was a head behind Atomic Age, who was half a length behind Atitlan, who was a neck behind Test Score. The winner, a son of Lookin at Lucky who is half Gold Phoenix’s age, paid $7.20 as the 13-5 second choice.

While disappointed, Gold Phoenix’s connections weren’t about to ask for condolences.

“We’re so grateful for everything that he has done, for all of us and the partners,” said Gary Fenton, managing partner of Little Red Feather Racing Stable. “He’s just a really, really special horse and today changes nothing.”

Said Billy Koch, Little Red Feather’s other managing partner: “It just didn’t work out the way we needed it to work out. He tries, though, every time. Can’t say anything but be proud of him.”

Koch said he had a feeling during the race that another win could be problematic. Gold Phoenix was near the back of the pack in the field of 11 until the far turn, when jockey Hector Berrios began urging him. The jockey had to hold him up just a bit as they came around the corner, though he had a clear run once he shifted toward the rail.

Test Score also rallied from behind but had a little smoother journey under Juan Hernandez and outdid the other closers.

“[Berrios] took a chance to go up in there,” D’Amato said. “It got a little tight but once he got through, he battled and we just got outrun.”

The final time of 2 minutes 14.76 seconds for 1-3/8 miles was the fastest since Gold Phoenix’s initial win (2:14.51). As part of the Breeders’ Cup Challenge Series, Test Score earned a fees-paid berth in the $5-million Breeders’ Cup Turf on Oct. 31 at Keeneland.

Fenton said the plan is to give Gold Phoenix another shot in that race, in which he’s finished fourth twice, fifth and 10th and earned $640,000 — about 25% of his career earnings of $2.6 million.

He won’t be the only Little Red Feather horse at Keeneland. Just a half-hour before Gold Phoenix’s race, Iron Man Cal pulled off an 8-1 upset in another Grade 2 race, the $250,000 Pat O’Brien. That win, in 1:22.02 for seven furlongs under Joel Rosario, guaranteed the 4-year-old gelding a berth in the Breeders’ Cup Dirt Mile.

Gary Fenton and Billy Koch have been sports fans long enough to know the cliché about Father Time being undefeated.

“I can say that about me for sure,” joked Koch, who is 56.

But the two men also know some individuals can delay the inevitable for years far beyond the norm. Someone like Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. Or Tom Brady. Or LeBron James. Or Gold Phoenix.

Wait, who?

Gold Phoenix is an 8-year-old gelding Fenton and Koch — managing partners of the Little Red Feather Racing Stable — purchased five years ago in his native Ireland. Since making his U.S. debut in January 2022, he has won a dozen races, all but one in a graded stakes, and earned more than $2.5 million. All of which puts him in great, though not exclusive company.

At about 6:40 p.m. Saturday, however, Gold Phoenix has a chance to separate himself from all but one other thoroughbred who has competed in North America. Should he win the $300,000 Del Mar Handicap, Gold Phoenix will join the legendary Kelso as the only horses to win the same major stakes race on this continent in five straight years. (Kelso, a five-time Horse of the Year, won the Jockey Club Gold Cup from 1960-64 at Aqueduct.)

“I got the chills when you said it,” Koch said. “To be even mentioned in the same breath as a horse like Kelso … that’s something that only happens once in a lifetime.”

Gold Phoenix is the 5-2 morning-line favorite, but the Grade 2 race is hardly a walkover. There are multiple stakes winners in the field, led by Test Score, the early second choice at 3-1. The 4-year-old is trained by Graham Motion, who has his own impressive streak: Seven straight summer stakes wins at Del Mar dating to 2022 — which is also the year Gold Phoenix won this 1 3/8-mile race for the first time.

Another victory would be the gelding’s seventh stakes win here, extending the record he set last month in the Eddie Read Stakes, which Koch and Fenton, in separate interviews, ranked among their favorite performances. At 1 1/8 miles, the race was shorter than Gold Phoenix prefers, and he had to beat a field that included another Del Mar specialist, Formidable Man.

“To see him come charging home just brought out all the emotions of what we’ve seen, not just from him [anywhere], but on this racetrack here at Del Mar that he absolutely loves,” Fenton said.

The victory was a close one, but that’s typical for Gold Phoenix, who has seven wins by a nose, head or neck and only one by more than 1¼ lengths. His competitiveness is apparent at any distance and under any jockey: He’s won races as short as 7 furlongs and as long as 1¾ miles, and all seven men to ride him earned at least one victory (his current rider, Hector Berrios, is four for five).

“He’s just such a cool horse,” Koch said, noting the gelding is known around the barn as “Clifford the Big Red Dog” because of his chestnut coat and a temperament Fenton describes as “sweet.”

But other horses like that, or those that are completely the opposite, don’t have Gold Phoenix’s success rate or longevity. That’s where Fenton made a human comparison.

“I’m going to say he’s like LeBron,” Fenton said, “in that as he’s been able to age, his body, his athleticism, have maintained at a very, very top level with very [few] issues. He’s been relatively sound all this time.”

Fenton and Koch are quick to credit trainer Phil D’Amato and his barn staff for their overall management, spacing out his races and giving Gold Phoenix time off each year after the Breeders’ Cup. He had a shorter break this winter — just three months until his first start of 2026 — because, Fenton said, “I think [D’Amato] just thought being at that age, to give him a break and then try to ramp him up, might be a little bit too much. So I think he rolled the dice and kept him in training for as long as he could. And, I mean, here we still are.”

For how much longer? There’s no reason to stop yet. Gold Phoenix already has three victories in 2026, matching his high for any year. And he hasn’t even run in the race he always wins.

“I just want to watch him and see him thrive at this level,” Fenton said, “and the moment he’s not at this level is where it’ll probably be time to wrap it up. But he’s showing no signs of it.”

Said Koch: “People always say, ‘Why are you still running? He’s 8.’ I’m like, what are we supposed to do? The horse might be better now than he was at 7 or he was at 6.”

Koch noted that in his role as board president for CARMA, a nonprofit that provides funding and care of retired California racehorses, he hears from many facilities offering to house Gold Phoenix.

“I tell them he’s not ready,” Koch said. “He’ll tell us. They keep asking, [but] somehow he’s managed to dodge Father Time. I don’t know how, but he has.

“We’ll figure it out. He’s going to go to a very special home. I promise you that he is going to have a great life. He deserves it.”