American graded winner Sharp Susan helped Australia’s Inglis Easter broodmare sale kick off with a strong “super select” session Tuesday when she topped the three-day auction’s opener at about $1,092,000.

Pimpernel, a stakes winner in England last year and stakes placed in Dubai earlier this year, may start favored in a wide-open running of the Group 3 Nell Gwyn Stakes for 3-year-old fillies at Newmarket, England on Wednesday, a prep for the English 1000 Guineas there next month.

Trained by Mahmoon Al Zarooni for Godolphin Racing, Pimpernel was fifth in the UAE Oaks in Dubai on Feb. 23 and makes her first start on turf in the seven-furlong Nell Gwyn since a win in the totepool Stakes at Newbury, England, last fall.

Dabirsim suffered the first loss of his career when run down by Dragon Pulse in the late stages of the Group 3 Prix Fontainebleau on Sunday at Longchamp.

Neptune Collonges won Saturday’s Grand National at Aintree Racecourse in England by a nose over Sunnyhillboy, a race marred by the deaths of two runners, including favored Synchronised, the winner of the Cheltenham Gold Cup last month.

Synchronised fell at Becher’s Brook, the toughest fence in the 4 1/2-mile race, on the first of two circuits. Another runner, According to Pete, fell at Becher’s on the second circuit and could not be saved.

[bc_video_id:248963:]The 30-1 outsider Master of Design caught Rain Affair in the final strides to score an upset win by a head in Saturday’s Group 1 T.J. Smith Stakes at Randwick Racecourse in Australia.

With the win, Master of Design, a 7-year-old Australian-bred horse by Redoute’s Choice, earned a fees-paid berth to the Breeders’ Cup Turf Sprint at Santa Anita in November. It is unclear whether he will take his place in that race. Master of Design must be nominated to the Breeders’ Cup program later this year to start in Turf Sprint.

Frankel now is considered very unlikely to make his intended 2012 debut in the Lockinge Stakes on May 19 at Newbury after suffering an injury – perhaps striking his foreleg with his hind hoof – while training Wednesday.

Dabirsim, the multiple Group 1 winner who captured all five of starts last year at age 2, is set to make his 3-year-old debut in the Group 3 Prix de Fontainebleau on Sunday at Longchamp.

Synchronised can become the first horse since Golden Miller in 1934 to win the Cheltenham Gold Cup and the Grand National in the same year when he starts as the 164-pound highweight in Saturday’s Grand National at Aintree Racecourse in England.

The presence of a Gold Cup winner in the Grand National is a rarity.

Adam’s Peak, a graded stakes winner at 2 but winless in his only start this year, and Cosmo Ozora, the upset winner of a Grade 2 race last month, start in Sunday’s $2.5 million Japanese 2000 Guineas at Nakayama Racecourse, the first leg of Japan’s Triple Crown.

The Japanese 2000 Guineas is followed in that country’s Triple Crown by the Japanese Derby on May 27 and the Japanese St. Leger in October.

Adam’s Peak has bloodlines that will be familiar to American racegoers.

Undefeated champion Frankel hurt himself during a Wednesday workout at Newmarket in England, but his connections deemed the injury “superficial,” and if that is the case, Frankel would have plenty of time to get back on track and make his scheduled 2012 debut in the Lockinge Stakes on May 19 at Newbury.

Henry Cecil, who trains the Juddmonte Farms homebred, said in a statement to Press Association Sport that Frankel “hit himself,” striking his right foreleg with his right hind leg, while working Wednesday. No more specific description of the injury was made public.