Goldikova's 2010 debut set

Goldikova, twice winner of the Breeders' Cup Mile, will make her seasonal debut in the 1 1/8-mile, 55-yard Prix d'Ispahan at Longchamp on May 23. Her trainer, Freddie Head, made that announcement at Auteuil on Sunday when Goldikova, a 5-year-old daughter of Anabaa owned by Alain and Gerard Wertheimer, was named France's 2009 champion older horse.

The Ispahan was the race with which Goldikova began her 4-year-old campaign, finishing a dull seventh behind Never on Sunday, a performance Head blamed on the soft ground. This year she will use the Ispahan as a prep for the one-mile Queen Anne Stakes on opening day of Royal Ascot, June 15. Head has warned, however, that her early-season schedule depends upon the ground, as she must have nothing worse than good-to soft going to be at her best.

The winner of the Eclipse Award as champion female on turf in 2009, Goldikova has been back with Head at his Chantilly yard since mid-February after having spent the winter vacationing at the Wertheimers' Haras du Quesnay in Normandy. Her ultimate objective this year remains a third consecutive victory in the Breeders' Cup Mile.