Richard Hannon, who has already sent out five 2-year-olds this season to win eight group races in England, will saddle the odds-on favorite in the first juvenile Group 1 contest of the year at the Curragh on Sunday when Strong Suit goes in the $264,000, six-furlong Phoenix Stakes.

The $330,000, Group 1 Prix Maurice de Gheest on Sunday is a wide-open affair over a straight 6 1/2 furlongs at Deauville. Among the 15 entries, there is no standout like Marchand d’Or, who won the race three times in a row from 2006 to 2008, but in Planet Five, trainer Pascal Bary may have the horse to beat.

Harbinger sits lordly above the rest of the world on the latest list produced by the World Thoroughbred Rankings committee. The 11-length winner of the King George VI and Queen Elizabeth Stakes is pegged at 135, or seven pounds higher than three-time Group 1 mile winner Canford Cliffs and eight pounds better than the leading American horse, Donn Handicap and Metropolitan Handicap winner Quality Road.

Next year’s $10 million Dubai World Cup will be run on Saturday, March 26, at Meydan Racecourse, the Emirates Racing Authority announced on Wednesday. That will be the last of 20 meetings during the 2010-11 season at Meydan, the glittering new track that opened this year on Jan. 28. Meydan will reopen this season on Nov. 11 for the first of nine evenings of racing before the start of Dubai International Racing Carnival on Jan. 13, the date of Round 1 of the Maktoum Challenge.

Stotsfold, third in last year’s Arlington Million, died of colic on Tuesday night at Newmarket Equine Hospital. The gelded 7-year-old son of Barathea had been aiming at a second tilt at the Million when he was stricken with the illness two weeks ago. He appeared to be on the road to recovery but suffered a relapse.

NEW YORK – The most refreshing race meeting in the world began on France’s Normandy coast Friday, when Deauville opened its doors for the first of 19 days of racing, the highlight of which will be Goldikova’s defense of her Prix Jacques Le Marois title Aug. 15.

Gloria de Campeao, winner of the Dubai World Cup, has been retired after suffering a tear to his left front tendon during a workout last Tuesday morning on the Chantilly gallops. The Brazilian-bred winner of the richest race in the history of the Thoroughbred racing this past March – the $10 million World Cup on the Tapeta surface at Meydan – Gloria de Campeao had been preparing for Australia’s Cox Plate when he was injured.

Goldikova easily captured the $392,000 Prix Rothschild at Deuville for the third time on Sunday, her record-tying 10th triumph in a Group 1 event.

The 5-year-old Goldikova, ridden by Olivier Peslier for trainer Freddie Head, and the great Miesque are the only European-trained horses to have won 10 times at the highest grade since the introduction of the classification structure in the 1970s.

Only Green was in her familiar role of setting the pace for her Wertheimer Brothers stablemate, as Peslier had Goldikova settled just off the pace.

Midday successfully defended her Nassau Stakes title at Goodwood on Saturday, taking the Group 1, $312,000 race by 1 1/4 lengths over 2009 French Oaks winner Stacelita, but not until she was exonerated for alleged interference at a stewards’ inquiry, the first to be televised in the history of British racing.

Richard Hannon’s extraordinary domination of the British juvenile division continued at Goodwood on Friday as Libranno led throughout to take the Group 2, $125,000 Richmond Stakes. Five Hannon-trained 2-year-olds have now won eight group races in England this season, six of them Group 2’s, plus a pair of Group 3’s.