Frankel, the joint champion 2-year-old male in Europe last year, stretched his unbeaten streak to five in Saturday’s Group 3 Greenham Stakes at Newbury Racecourse in England, confirming his status as a heavy favorite for the English 2000 Guineas at Newmarket on April 30.

Frankel, considered one of the finest 2-year-olds to race in England in recent years and the favorite for the 2000 Guineas on April 30, will make his 3-year-old debut as a prohibitive favorite in Saturday’s Group 3 Greenham Stakes at Newbury, England.

Trained by Henry Cecil for Juddmonte Farms, Frankel is considered a 2-5 shot for the Greenham, which is run over a straightaway seven furlongs and has drawn a field of six.

Barefoot Lady, a 14-1 outsider making her first start of 2011, caught 9-4 favorite Sing Softly in the final strides to win Wednesday’s Group 3 Nell Gwyn Stakes at Newmarket, a prep race for the English 1000 Guineas on the same course on May 1.

Ridden by Paul Hanagan for trainer Richard Fahey, Barefoot Lady prevailed by a neck, finishing seven furlongs in 1:24.44.

Black Caviar, the top-rated horse in the world according to the World Thoroughbred Rankings, earned an automatic berth in the 2011 Breeders’ Cup Turf Sprint by virtue of her 2 3/4-length win Saturday in the Group 1 Darley T.J. Smith Stakes at Royal Randwick Racecourse in Australia.

Unlike in past years, winners of 2011 Breeders’ Cup Challenge races such as the T.J. Smith will have their entry fees into Breeders’ Cup races waived. Race winners outside North America also will be provided with a $20,000 travel allowance.

Ballabriggs, racing near the front of a race that began with 40 horses and concluded, as usual, with far fewer, scored a 2 1/4-length victory Saturday in the $1,482,000 John Smith’s Grand National Chase at Aintree Racecourse in England.

The ever-consistent Ballabriggs has been almost perfectly prepared for Saturday’s $1.5 million Grand National Handicap Chase at Aintree. The winner of five of his last six starts, the 10-year-old is taken to outlast his 39 rivals in the monumental 4 1/2-mile spectacle, which requires stamina and jumping prowess in equal parts over 30 demanding spruce fences.

George Strawbridge will have himself a runner in the 1000 Guineas at Newmarket after his Invincible Spirit filly Moonlight Cloud ran off to a handy two-length score in the Group 3, $114,000 Prix Imprudence at Maisons-Laffitte on Thursday.

Six international Group 1 winners have been selected by the Hong Kong Jockey Club to join two local Hong Kong Group 1 winners in the $1.5 million Champions Mile at Sha Tin on April 25. They are headed by recent Dubai Duty Free winner Presvis, who has been supplemented by owner Leonidas Marinopoulos. The 7-year-old Luca Cumani-trained son of Sakhee won the 1 1/4-mile Queen Elizabeth II Cup two years ago at Sha Tin but will cut back from the Duty Free’s nine furlongs to run in the Champions Mile.

Criquette Head-Maarek will test the English 1000 Guineas waters at Maisons-Laffitte on Thursday with Helleborine in the Group 3, $113,000 Prix Imprudence over a straight seven furlongs.

Head-Maarek has won this race 10 times in the past with Ma Biche and Ravinella also having won the English 1000. Of her two other 1000 Guineas winners, Hatoof finished second in the Imprudence and Special Duty third.

St Nicholas Abbey looked decidedly dull in his return to the races at the Curragh on Sunday as he plodded home a well-beaten third in the 1 1/4-mile Alleged Stakes, a listed race worth $56,400.