The devastating earthquake and tsunami that struck Japan on March 11 continues to play havoc with the Japanese racing schedule. On Tuesday, the Japan Racing Association announced that all April meetings at Nakayama, east of Tokyo, and at Fukushima, the track nearest to the quake epicenter, have been canceled.

Gitano Hernando, the 2009 winner of Santa Anita’s Goodwood Stakes and one of 14 entries in Saturday’s $10 million Dubai World Cup, has been sold by Team Valor and Gary Barber to Chechen President Ramzan Kadyrov for what is believed to be $4 million.

The deal, brokered by British bloodstock agent Robert Harrison, will eventually see the 5-year-old son of Hernando switched to South African-based trainer Herman Brown. Gitano Hernando will, however, be saddled for the World Cup by his current trainer, the Newmarket-based Marco Botti.

Deep fields and a number of principals trying to win multi-million dollar races off long layoffs at Meydan on Saturday night will make for a number of intriguing betting contests on the Dubai World Cup card.

Dubai World Cup

Perhaps most interesting of all will be whether horses like Gio Ponti, Cape Blanco, and Buena Vista, all practiced on turf, can handle the switch to Tapeta while at the same time trying to win the World Cup off a winter vacation.

Turmoil struck the run-up to Dubai World Cup Night over the weekend when two of the most highly regarded horses on the card, Bold Silvano and Snow Fairy, were withdrawn from their respective races.

Bold Silvano, second favorite behind Twice Over for the Dubai World Cup, suffered “a tweak or pulled something” according to trainer Mike de Kock, and will miss the world’s richest race. On Saturday, trainer Ed Dunlop took four-time Group 1 winner and Dubai Sheema Classic favorite Snow Fairy out of that race after the filly suffered a minor injury to her right front cannon bone.

Polytechnicien proved a comfortable 2.20-1 winner of the Group 3, $111,000 Prix Exbury at Saint-Cloud on Saturday. The 5-year-old son of Royal Academy came from just off the pace to defeat the 5-2 Cirrus des Aigles by a half-length under Olivier Peslier, clocking 2:10.50 for the 1 1/4 miles on soft ground.

Long Run confirmed 7-2 favoritism to land a thrilling renewal of the $807,000 Cheltenham Gold Cup on Friday, defeating three previous winners of steeplechasing’s most coveted prize in the process.

The Group 3 Prix Exbury at Saint-Cloud on Saturday, at $111,000 and 1 1/4 miles the first group race of the European season, has attracted a highly competive field of nine. In recent years the Exbury has become a stepping-stone to bigger things in America, as its 2008 winner, Spirit One, would later win the Arlington Million, while last year’s winner, Chinchon, subsequently took Monmouth’s United Nations Stakes.

All 13 American-based horses running on Dubai World Cup Night, March 26, arrived safely in Dubai on Wednesday night. Led by World Cup hopeful Gio Ponti and defending Dubai Golden Shaheen winner Kinsale King, and including UAE Derby hopeful Sweet Ducky, formerly trained by Kelly Breen but now with South African-based Herman Brown since being purchased by Chechen president Ramzan Kadyrov, they joined the Ben Cecil-trained Crowded House, a Godolphin Mile candidate who has been in Dubai all winter.

Three former winners of the $804,000 Cheltenham Gold Cup Chase will line up for Friday’s 3 5/16-mile renewal, but the baton could pass to the young and improving Long Run, like so many of England’s best jumpers, a French-bred originally trained in France.

The defending title-holder. Imperial Commander, prepped with a win in Haydock’s three-mile Lancashire Chase, but that was back on Nov. 20, so the Nigel Twiston-Davies trainee may have difficulty living up to his role as William Hill’s 3-1 favorite.

There will be 14 American-trained horses running on Dubai World Cup Night at Meydan on March 26 with at least one American in each of the seven Thoroughbred races on the $26 million card.