Presvis returned to form at Meydan Thursday night when he swept to a last-to-first 4 3/4-length victory in the Group 2, $200,000 Al Rashidiya, a 1 1/8-mile course-and-distance prep for the $5 million Dubai Duty Free.

Trainer Mike de Kock is always the danger man in Dubai, and he will be cast in that role at Meydan on Thursday night when he saddles Irish Flame in the Group 2, $200,000 Al Rashidiya, a course-and-distance prep for the 1 1/8-mile, $5 million Dubai Duty Free on March 27.

Aspectoflove outdueled longshot Thai Haku in the $200,000 Cape Verdi Stakes at Meydan on Thursday night as the luckless favorite River Jetez closed with a rush for third in the one-mile Group 2 race for fillies and mares.

A neck separated Aspectoflove and Thai Haku at the line as the winner covered the mile in 136.52 on good ground. River Jetez, a Group 1 winner in South Africa, tried to come up the rail in midstretch but found no room behind the dueling leaders. Angled out by Christophe Soumillon, River Jetez finished best of all to be third, just a nose behind the runner-up.

Deem renews her partnership with Olivier Peslier at Meydan on Thursday night when the lightly raced 6-year-old mare should start as the favorite in the Group 2, $200,000 Cape Verdi Stakes at a mile on turf. The Irish-bred daughter of Dalakhani and the French rider combined to win the 1 1/8-mile, Group 3 Balanchine Stakes here last February. Since then, the Jerry Barton trainee was a game fourth behind Dar Re Mi and Buena Vista in the 1 1/2-mile Dubai Sheema Classic.

Sacred Kingdom scored his third victory in four years in the Centenary Sprint Cup at Sha Tin on Sunday, but Japan Cup winner Rose Kingdom went down to defeat in the Grade 2 Nikkei Shinshum Hai at Kyoto.

Rose Kingdom, placed first in the Japan Cup at the expense of Japanese Horse of the Year Buena Vista but denied a rematch with the filly when scratched form the Arima Kinen, drops down to Grade 2 company at Kyoto on Sunday for the 1 1/2-mile, $1.35 million Nikkei Shinshun Hai.

Mendip returned to winning ways with a comfortable victory in Round 1 of the $200,000 Maktoum Challenge on Thursday night at Meydan as the Dubai Racing Carnival got under way. The Group 3 mile, run on Meydan’s synthetic Tapeta surface, serves as the first stepping-stone to the $10 million Dubai World Cup on March 26, and in Mendip, trainer Saeed bin Suroor appears to have himself a prime contender for the world’s richest race.

The Dubai Racing Carnival gets under way at Meydan Racecourse on Thursday night with a competitive renewal of Round 1 of the Maktoum Challenge, a one-mile Group 3 contest on the Tapeta synthetic surface worth $200,000.

New Zealand Thoroughbred Racing announced Tuesday that it is raising the minimum weights for many of its races by one kilogram, or 2.2 pounds. The increase applies to all handicap races, including those with black-type status as well as non-black-type races at set weights for 2-year-olds and 3-year-olds.

The owners of 160 stallions based outside the U.S. and Canada have paid fees that make all of the stallions’ progeny eligible to run in the 14 Breeders’ Cup races, the Breeders’ Cup announced on Monday, seven days after nominations opened under a new structure for international stallions.