A new racing season showcased the same old Goldikova, who won her 2011 debut Sunday at Longchamp in Paris, taking the Prix d’Ispahan by a neck over Cirrus des Aigles. The 6-year-old Goldikova, perhaps the world’s best-known racehorse at this point, won the Ispahan for the second year in a row, and captured the 13^th Group 1 or Grade 1 race of her career.

Trainer Aidan O’Brien winning a Classic race is hardly news. That Joseph O’Brien, Aidan’s 17-year-old son, rode Roderic O’Connor to victory Saturday in the Irish 2000 Guineas came as more of a surprise. Roderic O’Connor gave Joseph O’Brien his first Classic victory, leading throughout the one-mile Guineas to prevail by three-quarters of a length over rallying Dubawi Gold.

American racing’s favorite foreigner, Goldikova, will make her 2011 debut Sunday at Lonchamp in Paris, where she faces eight foes in the Group 1 Prix d’Ispahan.

Though So You Think has made just one start since being imported from Australia, trainer Aidan O’Brien has suggested the horse may be one of the best – if not the best – he has ever trained. But exactly where in the upper echelon of the 2011 European hierarchy So You Think will fit might not be much clearer after Sunday’s Group 1 Tattersalls Gold Cup at the Curragh, since So You Think will have just four rivals, none of whom, on paper, should threaten him.

The middle-distance international circuit moves to Singapore on Sunday, with familiar foes Presvis, Wigmore Hall, and River Jetez part of an expected 13-horse field in the Group 1, $3 million Singapore Airlines International Cup.

The British Horseracing Authority has charged two owners, five jockeys, and six other individuals with conspiring to fix 10 races at British racecourses over a period of eight months in 2009, the authority said on Friday.

The charges all relate to efforts by the individuals to collect wagers on betting exchanges by ensuring that horses lost the races, the authority said. The 10 races took place at relatively minor racetracks in Great Britain.

Dubawi Gold will be favored Saturday at the Curragh in the Group 1 Irish 2000 Guineas in part because he exits a second-place finish to Frankel in the English 2000 Guineas, but also because the overall quality of his seven rivals appears to be subpar.

Trainer Wesley Ward is expanding his European string to nine horses this week, a group that will eventually form the team he starts at the Royal Ascot meeting in England on June 14-18.

Already this spring, Ward has won three races in France with as many starters and will have another when Holdin Bullets starts in a five-furlong allowance race at Chantilly on Friday.

Apapane, who won the 2010 Japanese Triple Crown for fillies, beat older mares, including the champion Buena Vista, in Sunday’s $2,214,000 Victoria Mile for fillies and mares at Tokyo Racecourse.

The 4-year-old Apapane closed from off the pace to finish a neck in front of a fast-closing Buena Vista, finishing a mile on turf in course record time of 1:31.9. Ridden by Masayoshi Ebina, Apapane, the 4-1 second choice, is by the Kingmambo sire King Kamehameha, and has won 7 of 12 starts.

Trainer Wesley Ward is expanding his European string to nine horses this week, a group that will eventually form the team he starts at the Royal Ascot meeting in England on June 14-18.

Already this spring, Ward has won three races in France with as many starters and will have another when Holdin Bullets starts in a five-furlong allowance race at Chantilly on Friday.