Aga Khan fires Fabre

The brief racing marriage of trainer Andre Fabre and owner the Aga Khan came to an end on Sunday when the Aga Khan announced that he was removing all 30 of the horses he has in training with Fabre, France's perennial champion trainer.

Citing "operational disagreements," the Aga Khan's racing manager, Georges Rimaud, said that the horses, all of them culled from the stock of the late Jean-Luc Lagardere, which the Aga Khan bought in 2005, would leave Fabre's Chantilly stable this week and be distributed among Alain de Royer-Dupre, Guy Henrot, and Jean-Claude Rouget.

* The Group 1 Italian Derby, which lost its status as a $1 million race last year when its purse was cut to $962,000, will be worth $1.45 million this year, when it will be moved forward on the calendar by three weeks to May 11 at the Capannelle in Rome and have its distance cut from 1 1/2 miles to 1 3/8 miles.