The 2012 Dubai World Cup program will be held on March 31, the highlight of a racing calendar in the United Arab Emirates announced on Monday.

The season will encompass 53 racing days, three more than last season, at Meydan and three other racecourses – Jebel Ali, Abu Dhabi and Sharjah.

Meydan will have 21 racing days overall and will be host for the Dubai World Cup Carnival from January through March, featuring 10 days of major racing. That portion of the Meydan season was previously known as the Dubai International Racing Carnival.

Three fences used for the Grand National steeplechase in Aintree, England, each April, including the famous Becher’s Brook, will undergo changes before racing resumes on that course in December, according to a statement released by Aintree and the British Horseracing Authority on Monday.

Await the Dawn, the 5-1 future-book favorite for the Breeders’ Cup Classic at Churchill Downs in November with the British bookmaker Coral, will be odds-on to win his first Group 1 in the Juddmonte International at York in England on Wednesday.

A 4-year-old colt trained by Aidan O’Brien for Michael Tabor and Susan Magnier, Await the Dawn has won his last four starts, two races in Ireland in 2010 and two stakes in England this year – the Group 3 Huxley Stakes at Chester in May and the Group 2 Hardwicke Stakes at Royal Ascot in June.

The 3-year-old filly Immortal Verse, the winner of the Group 1 Coronation Stakes at Royal Ascot in June, upset the heavily favored Goldikova in Monday’s Group 1 Prix Jacques le Marois at Deauville, France.

The loss prevented Goldikova from winning the 15th Group 1 race of her career, and was the second consecutive year in which she was beaten in the Prix Jacques le Marois, one of the top mile races in Europe each summer.

Just two weeks and a day after her win in the Group 1 Prix Rothschild at Deauville, Goldikova seeks her 15th Group 1 win in Monday’s Prix Jacques le Marois in France over the same course.

Goldikova was even-money in future-book betting on Saturday to win the Prix Jacques le Marois, which is run over a mile and is annually one of Europe’s most important races in the division. The race carries a purse of approximately $850,000.

Master of Hounds, the fifth-place Kentucky Derby finisher and a close second earlier this year in the UAE Derby, has been privately purchased from the Coolmore operation by Sheikh Mohammed bin Khalifa al Maktoum of Dubai and turned over to trainer Mike de Kock.

The private purchase was completed in the last month, and Master of Hounds soon will be shipped from Ireland to de Kock’s yard in England. But de Kock, in Chicago to start River Jetez in the Beverly D. Stakes, said Master of Hounds won’t run again until this winter’s International Racing Carnival in Dubai.

Frankel, the 3-year-old Juddmonte Farms superstar who ran his unbeaten streak to eight with a five-length triumph in the Group 1 Sussex Stakes at Goodwood on July 27, has taken over the top spot in the World Thoroughbred Rankings, which were released this week by the International Federation of Horseracing Authorities.

Fillies provided upset wins in Group 1 races in France and Ireland on Sunday.

Moonlight Cloud, one of two fillies in a field of 13, pulled an upset in Sunday’s Prix Maurice de Gheest for sprinters in Deauville, France. Dream Ahead, the joint champion 2-year-old of England last year, could only finish seventh after a troubled trip.

Dream Ahead made a successful voyage to Deauville, France, last summer to win the Group 1 Prix Morny, part of a season in which he shared the 2-year-old English championship with the undefeated Frankel.

This weekend, Dream Ahead makes another cross-Channel journey to Deauville, where he will be favored in Sunday’s Group 1 Prix Maurice de Gheest over 6 1/2 furlongs. Trained by David Simcock, Dream Ahead will be after his second consecutive win at the highest level, having won the Group 1 July Cup at Newmarket last month in his second start of 2011.

Canford Cliffs, widely considered England’s best older miler this year, has been retired after sustaining a leg injury, trainer Richard Hannon announced on Thursday.

The injury, to the pastern of his left foreleg, was detected after Canford Cliffs finished second by five lengths to the undefeated 3-year-old miler Frankel in the Group 1 Sussex Stakes at Goodwood on July 27 when attempting to win his sixth consecutive Group 1 race. In the final quarter-mile of that race, Canford Cliffs drifted noticeably to the left.