The Japanese home team held off a three-pronged Hong Kong invasion at Tokyo on Sunday as the 12.90-1 Showa Modern won the Grade 1, $2.1 million Yasuda Kinen, setting a stakes record of 1:31.70 for the mile on firm ground to break the 2003 mark of 1:32.10 set by Agnes Digital.

Rated in midpack by his rider, Hiroki Goto, the winning 6-year-old son of Air Jihad rallied to defeat Super Hornet by a half-length, with Smile Jack a head further back in third. The three Hong Kong raiders - Sight Winner, Fellowship, and Beauty Flash - finished fifth, ninth, and 11th, respectively.

On a day of record setting performances in Europe, Dalgahr cracked the track mark for seven furlongs at Longchamp with an impressive tally in the Group 3, $95,000 Prix du Palais-Royal. Ridden by Christophe Lemaire, the Anabaa 4-year-old tracked the fast pace of eventual runner-up Colonial, led just inside the three-eighths pole and ran on to a 2 1/2-length victory as the 11-10 favorite, stopping the clock at 1:17.40 on good ground.

An astonishing performance by the largely untried but fast improving Workforce electrified the crowd at Epsom on Saturday as the Michael Stoute-trained son of King's Best romped to a seven-length triumph in the $2.1 million Epsom Derby, setting a track record for 1 1/2 miles.

Finding the winner of the $1.8 million Prix du Jockey-Club, or French Derby, at Chantilly on Sunday was made even more difficult Thursday, when France-Galop officials waived the safety rule limiting the field to 20 runners.

As "a sporting gesture" to owners whose horses might have missed the cut, the field for the 1 5/16-mile, Group 1 classic was opened to any of the 25 horses who remained in the race at the four-day entry stage. Sunday's field will have 23 horses, the largest French Derby field since Magister beat 27 rivals in 1942.

There are no standouts in Sunday's $2.1 million Yasuda Kinen, a Grade 1 mile at Tokyo that was won the last two years by Vodka and in 2007 by Daiwa Major. A year earlier the race fell to Hong Kong invader Bullish Luck, and without a major hometown candidate, this year's running could go to one of the three Hong Kong raiders.

Fame and Glory covered himself in glory at Epsom on Friday with a tough-as-nails victory in the Group 1, $328,000 Coronation Cup, an hour before supplementary entry Snow Fairy landed the spoils in the $511,000 English Oaks.

Rewilding can give Godolphin its first Epsom Derby title Saturday, when he takes on 11 rivals in the $2.1 million, 1 1/2-mile classic.

Fame and Glory seeks more of both at Epsom on Friday, when he could be as low as even money against four other Group 1 winners in the Group 1, $329,000 Coronation Cup, a 1 1/2-mile race for older horses that shares the bill with the classic English Oaks.

A Montjeu 4-year-old, Fame and Glory looked better than ever when winning the

St Nicholas Abbey, the longtime winter book favorite for Saturday's Epsom Derby, has been withdrawn from the mile-and-a-half classic after being diagnosed with a muscle injury on Tuesday morning. The Montjeu colt returned to his stall stiff at trainer Aidan O'Brien's Ballydoyle yard on Monday evening. A scan revealed that he had injured a muscle high in his hind quarter.

Aidan O'Brien has six of the 15 horses left in the 231st running of Saturday's Epsom Derby at Monday's five-day entry stage. That one of them, Jan Vermeer, would go off the favorite is a certainty, but only if he runs in the race. O'Brien has stated that Jan Vermeer could run in the Prix du Jockey-Club, or French Derby, on Sunday instead. As a result, Ballydoyle's No. 1 rider, Johnny Murtagh, has not yet made up his mind whether his Epsom ride will be Jan Vermeer or his stablemate St Nicholas Abbey, who has been deposed as the Derby favorite.