Fillies provided upset wins in Group 1 races in France and Ireland on Sunday.

Moonlight Cloud, one of two fillies in a field of 13, pulled an upset in Sunday’s Prix Maurice de Gheest for sprinters in Deauville, France. Dream Ahead, the joint champion 2-year-old of England last year, could only finish seventh after a troubled trip.

Dream Ahead made a successful voyage to Deauville, France, last summer to win the Group 1 Prix Morny, part of a season in which he shared the 2-year-old English championship with the undefeated Frankel.

This weekend, Dream Ahead makes another cross-Channel journey to Deauville, where he will be favored in Sunday’s Group 1 Prix Maurice de Gheest over 6 1/2 furlongs. Trained by David Simcock, Dream Ahead will be after his second consecutive win at the highest level, having won the Group 1 July Cup at Newmarket last month in his second start of 2011.

Canford Cliffs, widely considered England’s best older miler this year, has been retired after sustaining a leg injury, trainer Richard Hannon announced on Thursday.

The injury, to the pastern of his left foreleg, was detected after Canford Cliffs finished second by five lengths to the undefeated 3-year-old miler Frankel in the Group 1 Sussex Stakes at Goodwood on July 27 when attempting to win his sixth consecutive Group 1 race. In the final quarter-mile of that race, Canford Cliffs drifted noticeably to the left.

Goldikova won Sunday’s Group 1 Prix Rothschild for a record fourth consecutive year at Deauville, France, holding off Sahpresa by a short neck. The margin at the end of the one-mile race was somewhat deceptive, as Goldikova was being eased down by jockey Olivier Peslier in the final sixteenth.

The victory gave Goldikova her 14th win in a Group 1 or Grade 1 race. Three of those wins have come in the last three runnings of the Breeders’ Cup Mile – twice at Santa Anita, once at Churchill Downs.

Midday won the Group 1 Nassau Stakes for a record third time at Goodwood Racecourse in England on Saturday, giving trainer Sir Henry Cecil his eighth win in the race.

Midday won by two lengths over the multiple Group 1 winner Snow Fairy with little urging from jockey Tom Queally in the final sixteenth. Sent off as the 3-2 favorite in the race over 1  1/4 miles, Midday took the lead with a quarter-mile remaining and was in command with a furlong to go.

The brilliant turf miler Goldikova will be heavily favored to win her second Group 1 race of 2011, and the 14th such race of her career, in Sunday’s Prix Rothschild at Deauville, France.

The winner of the last three runnings of the Breeders’ Cup Mile – twice at Santa Anita, once at Churchill Downs – Goldikova will be after her fourth consecutive win in the Prix Rothschild, a one-mile race for fillies and mares which has drawn a field of eight. The race has a purse of approximately $429,000.

Midday can become the first filly or mare to win three runnings of the Group 1 Nassau Stakes at Goodwood Racecourse in England on Saturday, but a win would be a slight surprise.

Midday, 5, is expected to be the second or third choice in the betting behind the upstart 3-year-old Misty for Me, trained by Aidan O’Brien, and the 4-year-old filly Snow Fairy. Midday and Misty for Me met for the first time in the Group 1 Pretty Polly Stakes at The Curragh in Ireland on June 25, which Misty for Me won by six lengths.

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Believe the hype. Three-year-old superstar Frankel proved he has substance to match his reputation, decisively defeating top miler Canford Cliffs in the Group 1 Sussex Stakes on Wednesday at Goodwood in England.

Unbeaten 3-year-old sensation Frankel has humbled rivals in his age set, but Wednesday, Frankel faces the strongest foe he has yet met, 4-year-old Canford Cliffs, in a highly anticipated renewal of the Group 1 Sussex Stakes at the Glorious Goodwood meeting in England.

Only two others were entered, and while both Rajsaman and Rio de la Plata are nice horses, the one-mile Sussex widely is viewed as a match race between Frankel and Canford Cliffs. The English bet-taker Coral, in fact, will refund losing wagers on Frankel and Canford Cliffs should neither win.

The five-day Glorious Goodwood meeting begins on Tuesday in southern England, and the first-ever match-up between the undefeated 3-year-old Frankel and the red-hot 4-year-old Canford Cliffs in Wednesday’s Group 1 Sussex Stakes figures to be the highlight of the week.

Both Frankel and Canford Cliffs won Group 1 races at Royal Ascot on June 14. Canford Cliffs beat two-time Breeders’ Cup Mile winner Goldikova in the Queen Anne Stakes an hour before Frankel extended his unbeaten streak to seven races in the St. James’s Palace Stakes for 3-year-olds.