At the Royal Ascot meeting in England, there is no gradual crescendo to a fantastic finale. Day 1 of five-day stand is the best day of the meeting, and the Group 1 Queen Anne Stakes, the first race on the first day, often is the meeting’s best race. In 2010, Goldikova kicked off Royal Ascot the right way with a popular Queen Anne win, and last year, Frankel delivered one of the best single performances ever winning by 11 lengths.

Animal Kingdom on Wednesday morning had his final breeze for the Queen Anne Stakes on Tuesday at Royal Ascot when he worked five furlongs on an uphill synthetic-surface gallop in Lambourn, England.

Trainer Graham Motion, who has been on hand since last weekend, said Animal Kingdom was timed in about 1:03 for the five furlongs. Peter Carberry, a steeplechase jockey, rode him, and Animal Kingdom went in company with a horse, Perpetually, who has become his regular workmate. 

Henry Cecil had been away from the racetracks of England for two months last August fighting illness when he made the trip from his home in Newmarket to York for the Juddmonte International Stakes.

The occasion was the 13th start in the career of the undefeated colt Frankel, whom Cecil trained for Khalid Abdullah’s Juddmonte Farms. Cecil had missed Frankel’s win in the Sussex Stakes at Goodwood earlier that month while undergoing treatment for cancer, but was determined to be at York.

Linton, a 7-year-old gray gelding, rallied on the rail through the final quarter-mile to win Saturday’s $1,292,000 Stradbroke Handicap at Eagle Farm Racecourse in Australia.

Ridden by Nicholas Hall, Linton (25-1) passed most of the field of 18 in the stretch to win the Group 1 race over seven furlongs by three-quarters of a length over Buffering, an 11-2 shot. Streama, a 10-1 shot, finished a head behind Buffering. Your Song, the 4-1 favorite, was 14th.

A week after winning his first stakes of 2013 in the Group 2 Queensland Guineas, Sizzling faces older horses in Saturday’s $1,292,000 Stradbroke Handicap at Eagle Farm Racecourse in Australia.

A Southern Hemisphere 3-year-old, Sizzling is part of a field of 18 in the Group 1 Stradbroke, which is run over about seven furlongs. The Stradbroke field includes Epaulette, winner of the Group 1 Doomben 10,000 Stakes on May 25; and Your Song, who won the Group 1 BTC Cup at Eagle Farm on May 11. The field has eight millionaires.

Ruler of the World and Libertarian, the one-two finishers in the Epsom Derby on Saturday, could meet again later this month in the Group 1 Irish Derby at The Curragh, while Intello, winner of the French Derby at Chantilly on Sunday, might not be seen again until August, with the Prix Jacques le Marois a possible resurfacing point for France's leader of the 3-year-old divison.

Meanwhile, it is back to the drawing board, evidently, with Dawn Approach, the Epsom Derby favorite who suffered the first loss of his career in finishing last of 12 in his first try beyond one mile.

Trainer Andre Fabre’s first win in the Prix du Jockey Club came in 1997 with Peintre Celebre, and his most recent came Sunday, when Intello stormed home from just off the leaders to impressively capture France’s version of the Kentucky Derby.

Lord Kanaloa, who has dominated sprints in Japan and Hong Kong since last fall, stretched his speed to a mile with a win in Sunday’s $2.06 million Yasuda Kinen at Tokyo Racecourse.

Sent off as the 3-1 favorite in the field of 18, Lord Kanaloa rallied wide under jockey Yasunari Iwata to take the lead in the final furlong. Lord Kanaloa held off a late threat from Shonan Mighty to win the Grade 1 race by a neck in 1:31.50. Danon Shark, a 36-1 outsider, was third.

Lord Kanaloa ran erratically late, but Iwata said that was not a major concern.

Aidan O’Brien won his fourth Epsom Derby, and the Coolmore group its third straight, as lightly raced Ruler of the World rallied from the rear of a 12-horse field under Ryan Moore to capture the Derby by 1 1/2 lengths.

The undefeated favorite, champion Dawn Approach, turned in an abysmal performance, pulling vigorously at jockey Kevin Manning soon after the gates opened, eventually dragging his rider up to the lead and fading badly in the Derby’s final half-mile, finishing last.

Intello finished third but looked like the best horse on May 12 at Longchamp in the Group 1 Poules d’Essai des Poulains (French 2000 Guineas), and he will have a chance to prove he is France’s top 3-year-old Sunday at Chantilly in the Group 1 Prix du Jockey Club, the French Derby.