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Newmarket Heath's nude brutality awaits a clutch of elite 3-year-olds on Saturday, from the ones who have flashed unusual prowess in the major juvenile exposés to those whose flashes of luminosity have come on smaller and less expected stages. The Rowley Mile's designated strip for the 2000 Guineas is as hostile this horrid Spring as it ever has been and Friday's grey skies and rain only served to extend Europe's winter hangover. Indifferent to weakness, expecting many a flinch and fold from the competitors lined up for the first Classic...

Europe swings back into pattern-race action Friday, with Sandown playing host to the G2 bet365 Mile, G3 Gordon Richards S. and G3 bet365 Classic Trial on a seven-race card. Godolphin's emphatic G3 Zetland S. winner Arabian Crown (Fr) (Dubawi {Ire}) lays his G1 Derby credentials on the line and will be confronted by eight in the Classic Trial. The €600,000 Arqana August graduate, who also snagged last term's Listed Stonehenge S., shed maiden status at the Esher venue in July. "Arabian Crown has track experience at Sandown, which is always...

Further Guineas clues abound at Newbury on Saturday, with the pair of seven-furlong trials offering a springboard to next month's Newmarket and ParisLongchamp features. In time-honoured fashion, the G3 Fred Darling S. sees a high-profile sprinting filly being asked to stretch out for the first time and at this point all are in the dark as to whether Yuesheng Zhang's acquisition Relief Rally (Ire) (Kodiac {GB}) can go the extra furlong having signed off her highly profitable juvenile campaign with a win in the G2 Lowther S. In contrasting style,...

With no standout member of the line-up, Thursday's G3 Craven S. at Newmarket may offer more clues as to the 2000 Guineas prospects of those in absentia who share the stables of the main contenders. Ballydoyle are perhaps scouting the local opposition to City Of Troy with Cambridge (Ire) (Dubawi {Ire}), while Godolphin saddle Native Approach (GB) (Too Darn Hot {GB}) possibly with a view to weighing up where their Notable Speech (GB) (Dubawi {Ire}) sits. Andre Fabre is here again with Baron Edouard De Rothschild's TDN Rising Star Alcantor...

Long absent but certainly not forgotten by the racing intelligentsia, TDN Rising Star Matrika (Ire) (No Nay Never) stages her comeback in a renewal of Newmarket's G3 Lanwades Stud Nell Gwyn S. on Wednesday that could yet determine the shape of next month's G1 1000 Guineas. While seen generally as an understudy to Ballydoyle's sidelined Opera Singer (Justify) and other TDN Rising Star Ylang Ylang (GB) (Frankel {GB}) in the Classic picture throughout the winter weeks, there is time for her to emerge as a leading light with this seven-furlong...

France's key mile Classic trials take place on Sunday, with ParisLongchamp hosting the G3 Prix de la Grotte and G3 Prix de Fontainebleau over the same course and distance of next month's G1 Poule d'Essai des Pouliches and Poulains. The Grotte sees some major names among the generation's fillies making their seasonal return, led by China Horse Club International's G1 Prix Marcel Boussac runner-up Rose Bloom (Ire) (Lope De Vega {Ire}) and Alain Jathiere's G3 Prix des Reservoirs winner Tulipa Chope (Fr) (Born To Sea {Ire}). The Aga Khan's four-length...

The G1 Satsuki Sho (Japanese 2000 Guineas) will be held at Nakayama over 2000 metres on Sunday, and this year's edition features Group 1 winner Regaleira (Jpn) (Suave Richard {Jpn}), a winner of the Hopeful S. versus the colts over this course and distance in December. The filly, who bears the Sunday Racing colours and will tote four pounds less than her male rivals, leaves from stall 10 under Hiroshi Kitamura. A winner against newcomers at Hakodate last July, she lost her perfect record when third in the Listed Ivy...

Sunday sees a swing in the momentum towards the more meaningful Flat action of 2024, with Leopardstown--which has to survive an early-morning inspection--and ParisLongchamp staging a host of Classic trials. Ballydoyle's wheels are really set in motion at the former venue, with several of their promising 3-year-olds ready to be unleashed in the card's trio of preps including the 10-furlong G3 P.W. McGrath Memorial Ballysax S. It is in that early Derby pointer that Rosegreen's G1 Criterium de Saint-Cloud third Illinois (Ire) (Galileo {Ire}) and impressive course maiden-winning TDN Rising...

Three starts, three wins, and now, Japanese Champion 2-Year-Old Filly Ascoli Piceno (Jpn) (Daiwa Major {Jpn}) will attempt to add a Classic to her haul when she breaks from gate nine in the 18-horse G1 Oka Sho (Japanese 1000 Guineas) at Hanshin on Sunday. Reuniting with Hiroshi Kitamura who she carried to G1 Hanshin Juvenile Fillies glory over this trip back in December, the near-black filly makes her 2024 bow in the first Classic of the Japanese season. Striking on a newcomers' affair in June and the G3 Niigata Nisai...

by Alan Carasso, Heather Anderson, Jill Williams & Adam Houghton DUBAI, UNITED ARAB EMIRATES -- Meydan Racecourse is the centre of the racing universe Saturday, as it stages the 28th renewal of the G1 Dubai World Cup. The dozen horses that have been entered represent ownership interests from Japan, America, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Kazakhstan and even Libya, putting the 'World' in World Cup. Ushba Tesoro (Jpn) (Orfevre {Jpn}) is back to defend the title he grabbed in 2023 and will attempt to join Thunder Snow (Ire) (Helmet...

Despite an ever-growing Japanese presence at the Dubai World Cup meeting in the UAE, Sunday's 2000-metre G1 Osaka Hai at Hanshin still boasts five Group 1 winners, four of them Classic scorers and several other progressive types hunting for their first Group 1 ring. One of the top picks in the 16-strong field is last year's G1 Tokyo Yushun (Japanese Derby) winner, Tastiera (Jpn) (Satono Crown {Jpn}), who ran second in both the G1 Satsuki Sho (Japanese 2000 Guineas)--to Sol Oriens (Jpn) (Kitasan Black {Jpn})--and the G1 Kikuka Sho (Japanese...

It's a case of all eyes on Doncaster on Saturday with the wheel set to turn once again as the Town Moor track stages the opening act of the British Flat Turf season. Alongside the traditional curtain-raiser of the Lincoln H. for the hardened older milers is the Brocklesby S. for juveniles, the annual show of precocity where the focus will inevitably be on Royal Ascot. First-season sires represented include Mohaather (GB) and Without Parole (GB), with the former's son Dukes Of Haather (GB) from the Adrian Keatley stable looking...