Orfevre, the winner of the Japanese 2000 Guineas earlier this spring, is expected to be favored in Sunday’s $3.6 million Japanese Derby at Tokyo Racecourse, a race with a European flavor with the presence of jockey Frankie Dettori on top contender Debonair.

Kentucky-based trainer Wesley Ward was represented by 2-year-old winners in England and France in a span of approximately 70 minutes on Thursday, bringing his number of winners in Europe this spring to five in advance of the Royal Ascot meeting in England next month.

Italo, a gelding by With Distinction, won a five-furlong maiden race for horses that had not started at Longchamp Racecourse in Paris. Jeffrey Sanchez rode Italo, who won by 1 1/2 lengths as the 13-10 favorite.

Workforce will be favored over eight opponents in the Group 3 Brigadier Gerard Stakes on Thursday at Sandown, the 4-year-old’s first start since winning the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe last Oct. 3. Workforce, a winner in 3 of his 5 career starts, also captured the Epsom Derby last summer in England.

Gitano Hernando, considered a synthetic-track specialist, scored the best turf win of his career on Sunday, leading all the way to win the Group 1 Singapore Gold Cup by a half-length over the mare River Jetez.

New Zealand-bred So You Think has yet to face a worthy opponent in two starts since being imported to Ireland from Australia, but the manner in which he has won those two races, most recently the Group 1 Tattersalls Gold Cup on Sunday at the Curragh, suggests So You Think can compete with any horse in Europe.

Bookmakers certainly think so: So You Think is listed as the early favorite for prestigious races such as the King George and the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe after easily winning the Gold Cup by 4 1/2 lengths under Ryan Moore.

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.