There were suggestions that the connections of Workforce, winner of the English Derby and the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe last year, ducked an engagement with highly touted Australian import So You Think in the June 15 Prince of Wales's. So You Think wound up losing the Prince of Wales's anyway, run down in the final strides by Rewilding, and the Workforce-So You Think showdown comes instead on Saturday at Sandown, where the two meet up in the Group 1 Eclipse Stakes. Just five are expected to start in the Eclipse, but the field also includes Snow Fairy, one of the world’s best fillies.

Khalid Abdullah’s Juddmonte Farms collected three awards Monday night at Britain’s annual Thoroughbred Breeders Association awards dinner in Newmarket.

Juddmonte’s powerful homebreeding operation, which also has a farm in Lexington, Ky., won as 2010’s leading British-based Flat breeder by earnings and also received honors for its stallion Dansili as leading sire by earnings and for broodmare Binche as Flat broodmare of the year. Both are Juddmonte homebreds and are the sire and dam, respectively, of the racemare Proviso, winner of four U.S. Grade 1 races last year for Juddmonte.

Earnestly won the first Grade 1 race of his career in a 12-1 upset in Sunday’s $3.2 million Takarazuka Kinen at Hanshin Racecourse in Japan, earning an automatic berth in the Breeders’ Cup Turf at Churchill Downs in November.

A 6-year-old horse, Earnestly was always near the front and won by 1 1/2 lengths over Buena Vista, the 5-year-old mare who is a five-time Grade 1 winner and was Japan’s Horse of the Year in 2009 and 2010.

Not only did trainer Aidan O’Brien win the Irish Derby for the sixth year in a row, he recorded his fourth sweep of the top three placings in the race Sunday when Treasure Beach beat Seville and pacesetter Memphis Tennessee in the Group 1 race at The Curragh. Carlton House turned in his second consecutive disappointing performance, finishing fourth behind the O’Brien trio after a third in the English Derby.

Misty for Me is proving to be unbeatable in Group 1 races at the Curragh in Ireland.

Saturday, the 3-year-old filly won her third race at that level at the famous racecourse in the Pretty Polly Stakes, leading throughout 1  1/4 miles for fillies and mares and repelling a threat from Midday, the 1-3 favorite, in early stretch.

Treasure Beach, Carlton House, and Memphis Tennessee, respectively the second, third, and fourth-place finishers in the English Derby, renew their rivalry Sunday at The Curragh in the Group 1 Irish Derby. Treasure Beach and Memphis Tennessee are trained by Aidan O’Brien, who also has Roderic O’Connor and Seville in the eight-horse field. With half the runners, O’Brien figures to have a solid chance of landing his sixth straight victory in the 1 1/2-mile Derby.

Buena Vista, Japan’s Horse of the Year for the last two seasons, will be favored in Sunday’s Group 1 Takarazuka Kinen at Hanshin Racecourse, a race that offers an automatic berth to the winner to the Breeders’ Cup Turf at Churchill Downs in November.

In 2010, Snow Fairy won four Group 1 races in four countries on two continents. How much she can accomplish this year will be better known on Saturday when Snow Fairy makes her 4-year-old debut in the Group 1 Pretty Polly Stakes for fillies and mares at the Curragh in Ireland.

Run over 1 1/4 miles, the Pretty Polly Stakes is part of the Breeders’ Cup Challenge program, offering an automatic berth for the winner to the BC Filly and Mare Turf at Churchill Downs in November.

Society’s Rock, second in the race last year, scored an upset in the Group 1 Golden Jubilee on Saturday, the final day of the 2011 Royal Ascot meeting, but it was Group 2 Hardwicke Stakes winner Await the Dawn whom American racing fans may want to follow.

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The French invader Immortal Verse rallied from last in a field of 12 to win the first Group 1 race of her career in Friday’s Coronation Stakes at Royal Ascot, the meeting’s premier race for 3-year-old fillies.