Four-year-old Xtension won for just the second time in his career when he rallied from mid-pack behind a slow pace to capture the Group 1, $1.54 million Champions Mile on Monday at Sha Tin Racecourse in Hong Kong.

Orfevre won his second consecutive stakes in the Japanese 2000 Guineas at Tokyo Racecourse on Sunday, weaving his way through traffic in early stretch to win the $2.3 million race by three lengths.

Ridden by Kenichi Ikezoe for trainer Yasutoshi Ikee, Orfevre, a 10-1 shot, outfinished Sadamu Patek, the 5-2 favorite in the field of 18. Danon Ballade finished third.

Dick Turpin, looking like a major player in the European mile division, easily won the Group 2 Bet365 Mile on Saturday at Sandown in England.

Stuck down along the inside about a quarter of a mile from the finish, Dick Turpin found room just outside pacesetting Highland Knight. The capable Cityscape loomed on the outside and briefly appeared to be going just as well as Dick Turpin, but the strong race favorite powerfully dashed away under minimal urging from jockey Richard Hughes to win by 2 1/4 lengths.

Fresh off a determined victory in the $5 million Dubai Duty Free, Presvis will try a new trick Monday at Sha Tin in Hong Kong. Typically raced between nine and 10 furlongs, Presvis is the highest-rated horse among 14 entered in the Champions Mile, Presvis’s first start at less than 1 1/8 miles in almost three years.

Presvis hasn’t raced a distance shorter than nine furlongs since July 2008, but his connections believe the 7-year-old’s powerful late kick will fit the lesser trip.

Grand Vent, third in stakes in his last two starts for trainer Andre Fabre, and Genzy, who won his first start of the year on March 28, are two leading contenders in Sunday’s Group 2 Prix Noailles at Longchamp, France.

The Prix Noailles, run over about 1 1/4 miles, is a prep race for the French Derby at Chantilly on June 5. Planteur, who won the 2010 Prix Noailles, later finished second in the French Derby.

Two Group 1-winning milers, Dick Turpin and Music Show, are set to make their 4-year-old debut in the Group 2 Sandown Mile on Saturday.

A record 10 American-based runners have been nominated to the Group 1 races at Royal Ascot from June 14-18, and some of the runners will have prep races as soon as Saturday.

The two-time stakes winner Sadamu Patek is expected to be favored in Sunday’s Group 1 Japanese 2000 Guineas, the Satsuki Sho, a race postponed a week and moved from Nakayama to Tokyo Racecourse after the devastating earthquake and tsunami that struck the country on March 11.

Run over about 1 1/4 miles on turf and worth approximately $2,378,000 million, the 2000 Guineas will be Sadamu Patek’s second start of the year, preceded by a Group 2 win over about 10 furlongs in the Hochi Hai Yayoi Sho, at Nakayama on March 6.

Wootton Bassett, unraced since winning the Group 1 Prix Jean-Luc Lagardere in France last fall, will not start in the English 2000 Guineas at Newmarket on April 30 after trainer Richard Fahey said on Tuesday that the colt was too far behind in his training.

“We’ve just run out of time with him,” Fahey told the Racing Post. “To run in a Guineas, you’ve got to get them there 100 percent, and Wootton Bassett wouldn’t be.”

Wootton Bassett had a workout on Tuesday and will be pointed for the French 2000 Guineas on May 15 or the Irish 2000 Guineas on May 22.

There very well could be a European representative in this year's Kentucky Derby. Master of Hounds is being strongly considered for the race, according Monday to an Irish-based spokesman for Coolmore Stud's John Magnier, who owns Master of Hounds.

"At the moment, the plan is for Master of Hounds to run in the Derby," said the spokesman, who asked not to be identified but has spoken with authority on Coolmore-related matters in the past. "He still has a few pieces of work. After that, the trainer will decide."