It's Kinsale King versus the world at Royal Ascot on Saturday when the Dubai Golden Shaheen winner faces 23 rivals from six different countries in the Group 1, $665,000 Golden Jubilee Stakes. The six-furlong sprint has drawn most of the best turf sprinters from around the globe in a race in which nothing can be taken for granted.

Speed or tracking speed has been the order of the day the first two days at Royal Ascot, and there is no reason to believe it will be different Friday, when Anna Salai, Evading Tempete, and Tabassum could have the Group 1, $370,000 Coronation Stakes all to themselves.

Stamina was the order of the day at Royal Ascot on Thursday, when the 20-1 Rite of Passage set a track record for 2 1/2 miles in winning the Group 1, $370,000 Ascot Gold Cup. The 6-year-old Rite of Passage outbattled Age of Aquarius by a neck in a ding-dong stretch duel to give trainer Dermot Weld his first Gold Cup triumph.

The spirit of four-time Ascot Gold Cup winner Yeats will be hanging over the Royal Meeting on Thursday, but the great stayer himself, now retired, will be absent from the festivities as 13 pretenders to his throne line up for the grueling 2 1/2-mile Group 1 test worth $370,000.

Trainer Aidan O'Brien will try to pick up where Yeats left off with Age of Aquarius, a Galileo half-brother to two group-race mile winners, but he has been only second in his last three starts going shorter and may lack the necessary stamina required to win the Gold Cup.

Byword gave France its second Group 1 triumph at Royal Ascot in as many days on Wednesday when he captured the $666,000 Prince of Wales's Stakes by a half-length. Both Byword, based in France with trainer Andre Fabre, and runner-up Twice Over, an English-based runner with trainer Henry Cecil are owned by Khalid Abdullah's Juddmonte Farms.

The victory of 5-2 Byword also paid a huge compliment to Goldikova, Tuesday's Queen Anne Stakes winner who had beaten him last time by a half-length in the 1 1/8-mile, 55-yard, Group 1 Prix d'Ispahan.

Goldikova got Royal Ascot off to a glittering start on Tuesday as she held off the gallant Paco Boy by a neck in the Group 1, $370,000 Queen Anne Stakes. It was the ninth stakes victory at the highest level for Goldikova, who has her sights set firmly on a third Breeders' Cup Mile title in November.

The decidedly French flavor on the first day at Royal Ascot on Tuesday will be tasted again Wednesday when the likely favorite for the Group 1, $663,885 Prince of Wales's Stakes will be the Andre Fabre-trained Byword. He will be accompanied in his cross-channel foray by the Mikel Delzangles-trained Shalanaya, one day after Goldikova and Makfi take dead aim at the Royal Meeting's two big Group 1 miles.

Goldikova can enhance her credentials as arguably the best female racehorse in the world in the first race on opening day at Royal Ascot on Tuesday when she squares off against a top-class field of milers in the $367,000 Queen Anne Stakes. A victory would be her sixth Group 1 triumph over males, compared with three for Rachel Alexandra and one for Zenyatta.

Stacelita got back on the winning track at Longchamp on Monday with a convincing wire-to-wire victory in the Group 3, $98,000 La Coupe. Afterward, her trainer Jean-Claude Rouget said that the entire 4-year-old campaign of the Martin Schwartz-owned filly will be geared toward an appearance in the Breeders' Cup Filly & Mare Turf.

The two American hopefuls at Royal Ascot on Tuesday have drawn ideally in their respective races.

Noble's Promise, who will be saddled by Ken McPeek and ridden by Kieren Fallon in the one-mile, Group 1 St. James's Palace Stakes, drew the rail in a nine-runner field of 3-year-olds that includes 2000 Guineas winner Makfi and Irish 2000 Guineas winner Canford Cliffs. The race will be run on the old Ascot mile, the first five furlongs of which are all uphill before a right-handed, 90-degree turn into the 2 1/2-furlong stretch.