Goldikova sets out Sunday on the road to what she hopes will be a third consecutive Breeders' Cup Mile title when she meets a first-class field in the Group 1, $312,000 Prix d'Ispahan at Longchamp.

Trainer Freddie Head and owners Gerard and Alain Wertheimer will be holding their breath, however, as the 5-year-old Goldikova failed in this same race last year when she was seventh on unsuitably soft ground.

Aidan O'Brien will be a busy man Saturday afternoon at the Curragh, when he saddles six of the 13 runners in the $402,000 Irish 2000 Guineas. He will, of course, be aided by his team of capable assistants, but victory in the one-mile classic could be a more difficult prospect than getting his half-dozen into the gate.

Godolphin Racing's diverging European forces suffered mixed fortunes at Goodwood on Wednesday when Rewilding won the Cocked Hat Stakes while Wedding March finished dead last in the Height of Fashion Stakes, a pair of Epsom classic preps in which both horses were favored to win.

A pair of Irish classics and the return of two-time Breeders' Cup Mile winner Goldikova are the highlights of a weekend in which five Group 1 races will be run at Curragh and Longchamp.

Aidan O'Brien has nominated nine of the 20 runners for Saturday's Irish 2000 Guineas, the one-mile colts' classic he has won the last two years with Mastercraftsman and Henrythenavigator.

Andreas Wohler, the German trainer who saddled Silvano to win the 2001 Arlington Million, may have another candidate for that race on Aug. 21. Querari, the winner of the 1 1/4-mile, Group 1 Premio President della Repubblica at the Capannelle in Rome on Sunday, is being considered for the world's oldest million-dollar race by the German trainer.

Lizard's Desire turned the tables on Gloria de Campeao at Kranji Racecourse on Sunday as he rallied to defeat his Dubai World Cup conqueror by a half-length in the Group 1, $2.1 million Singapore Airlines International Cup.

Gloria de Campeao had barely held off Lizard's Desire by the smallest of noses in the $10 million World Cup on a Tapeta surface. The result Sunday on turf was similar but a strong ride from Kevin Shea on the winner reversed the order of finish.

With the help of the French stewards, Special Duty made history at Longchamp on Sunday as she became the first horse to win two classics without finishing first in either of them.

Paco Boy outclassed his eight rivals in the $290,000 Lockinge Stakes at Newbury on Saturday. Given a supremely confident ride by Richard Hughes, the 5-year-old son of Desert Style took the Group 1 mile by an eased up three-quarters of a length from Ouqba to record his third victory at racing's highest level.

The big money that is always on the line in Asia has attracted three sterling fields in Singapore and Japan on Sunday, the best of them at Kranji Racecourse, where Gloria de Campeao and Lizard's Desire, the first two finishers in the Dubai World Cup, square off against the surprise winner of the Dubai Duty Free Al Shemali in the $2.1 million Singapore Airlines International Cup.

Special Duty will attempt to complete a rare classic double at Longchamp on Sunday, when she goes in the $564,000 Poule d'Essai des Pouliches, or French 1000 Guineas. A Criquette Head-Maarek-trained daughter of Hennessy, Special Duty is running back on two weeks' rest after placing first in the 1000 Guineas at Newmarket via the disqualification of Jacqueline Quest. Stephane Pasquier retains the ride.