First Force, who finished no closer than ninth in his first three appearances in Grade 1 sprints, ended a 13-race losing streak since July 2021 with a shocking win in Sunday’s Grade 1 Takamatsunomiya Kinen at Chukyo Racecourse in Japan.

First Force ($90) closed from the middle of a field of 18 to win the $2.52 million Takamatsunomiya Kinen at six furlongs by a length over 5-1 Namura Clair. Travesura (56-1) closed along the rail to lead briefly in the stretch and held third, finishing 1 1/2 lengths behind First Force.

The 5-year-old gelding Reliable Dude has failed to live up to his name, going winless in his last 18 starts since June 2021 in Australia.

That trend may change when Reliable Dude starts in a handicap at 1 1/4 miles at Kembla Grange Racecourse on Monday evening. Reliable Dude was beaten a nose in a handicap at 1 1/4 miles at Hawkesbury on March 14, the closest he has come to a win since last March.

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates – Lord North resides in England, housed at the Clarehaven Stables of trainer John Gosden. But his true domain is the Meydan turf course. After winning the $5 million Dubai Turf in 2021 and dead-heating for first in the race last year, Lord North notched a third win on Saturday, beating onrushing Danon Beluga by three quarters of a length in this Group 1 race over 1,800 meters.  

Seven-year-old Lord North is a gelding. The way he’s going, it’s not crazy to think he could return for still another Dubai Turf.  

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates – A half-hour later, a Japan-based horse named Ushba Tesoro would win the $12 million Dubai World Cup. The race Equinox won, the Group 1, $6 million Sheema Classic, offered half the World Cup purse, but no one in their right mind would suggest Equinox is half the horse. 

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates – Eight was enough.  

Eight Japanese horses came to Dubai for the 27th World Cup and Ushba Tesoro emerged with the second Japanese victory here following Victoire Pisa in 2011. Victoire Pisa won on the old Tapeta surface at Meydan, and Ushba Tesoro’s was the first for a Japan-based horse in a dirt World Cup. 

A race at 1 1/2 miles was a bit too far for I Am the Empire in Australia on March 10. After racing keenly early and still in contention with a furlong to go, I Am the Empire faded late.

Three times since mid-January, the Australian 2-year-old Storm the Ramparts has finished third, each time closing ground to give the impression he was on the verge of a breakthrough.

Though winless, Storm the Ramparts has done enough to merit a leading role in the $132,900 Wellington Boot Stakes at 5 1/2 furlongs at Wellington Racecourse on Saturday evening. The colt is part of a field of 14 that could change significantly if Mostro draws into the race from the also-eligible list.

Pixie Knight won the biggest race of his career in the Grade 1 Sprinters Stakes at Nakayama Racecourse in Japan in November 2021 in what turned out to be his final completed race that year.

Pixie Knight started a month later in the Group 1 Hong Kong Sprint at Sha Tin Racecourse in Hong Kong, but did not finish after being involved in a four-horse spill.

Pixie Knight, who missed all of 2022, returns to racing in Sunday’s Grade 1 Takamatsunomiya Kinen at six furlongs on turf at Chukyo Racecourse in Japan, the country’s first Grade 1 race on grass of the year.

Vow and Declare and Gold Trip are respective winners of the 2019 and 2022 Melbourne Cups. They meet for the first time since that race was run in November in the Group 1 Tancred Stakes at Rosehill Gardens in Sydney on Friday.