Meiner Kitz will defend his title in the $2.7 million Spring Tenno Sho at Kyoto on Sunday. At two miles, the Emperor s Cup is Japan s most prestigious stayer s race and was won in 2006 by the great Deep Impact, who set a national record of 3:13.40 for the distance.

Meiner Kitz, a 7-year-old son of the 1997 Breeders Cup Turf winner, Chief Bearhart, isn t quite in Deep Impact s league, but he prepped for his defense with a victory in the 1 9/16-mile, Grade 2 Nikkei Sho, a race in which he had been second last year. Trained by Sakae Kuneida, he will be ridden by Masami Matsuoka.

St Nicholas Abbey puts his marquee reputation on the line when he faces 18 rivals in the 2000 Guineas Stakes on the straight Rowley Mile at Newmarket on Saturday. Three of the last five winners of the $608,000 classic have been trained by Aidan O'Brien, and in St Nicholas Abbey, he has the firm 11-8 favorite, according to odds offered by Ladbrokes.

The Usual Q.T. has been invited by the Japan Racing Association to run in the $1.9 million Yasuda Kinen at Tokyo Racecourse on June 6, but his trainer, Jim Cassidy, is also considering him for Hollywood Park's $250,000 Shoemaker Mile on May 31. Both are one-mile turf events at the Grade 1 level.

"Right now I'm 50-50 about sending him to Japan," said Cassidy on Wednesday. "Since he came back from Dubai" - where he finished fourth in the Dubai Duty Free - "I've just been trying to keep him happy . . . . It's too early to tell what his next race will be."

St Nicholas Abbey's seasonal debut in the 2000 Guineas on Saturday will be his first start in 189 days, but no one should be frightened off him by what is an unusually long layoff by American standards. Seven of the last nine winners of the one-mile classic have triumphed off similar winterlong vacations, and four of those were trained by the man in charge of St Nicholas Abbey, Aidan O'Brien.

An Aga Khan horse crossed the line first in the Group 3, $107,000 Prix de Fontainebleau at Longchamp on Sunday, but it was not the one who had been expected.

Rajsaman led throughout as the pacesetter for highly regarded Group 1 winner Siyouni and held off his entrymate by a half-length. The winning time for the mile on good ground was 1:39.36.

Viva Pataca held off Lizard's Desire in the $1.8 million Queen Elizabeth II Cup at Sha Tin on Sunday to notch the eighth Group 1 triumph of his career.

The victory, Viva Pataca's second in the QEII, allowed him to become the highest-earning horse in Hong Kong history. An 8-year-old gelding, Viva Pataca has bankrolled $10,219,190 since his first start in Hong Kong on Jan. 1, 2006, during which time he won 13 of 36 starts. Before that, he had won five times in eight starts in Britain, where he raced as Comic Strip, for total earnings of $10,324,655.

In a marvelous display of sheer class, Paco Boy returned to the races with a bang as he cruised to victory in the Group 2, $153,000 Sandown Mile at Sandown Park on Saturday. Ridden with aplomb by Richard Hughes, the 5-year-old Paco Boy captured this race for the second year in a row, having taken last year's running by three-quarters of a length.

French champion 2-year-old Siyouni begins his 3-year-old campaign on Sunday in the Group 3, $106,000 Prix de Fontainebleau, the key trial for the French 2000 Guineas over the same one-mile Longchamp course and distance. A son of Pivotal owned by the Aga Khan and trained by Alain de Royer-Dupre-trained, Siyouni comes off an Oct. 4 victory in the Group 1 Prix Jean-Luc Lagardere and will be ridden by Gerald Mosse.

Godolphin and Saeed bin Suroor had their first winner of the British season at Sandown Park on Friday as Chabal landed the Group 3, $100,000 Sandown Classic Trial. Frankie Dettori rode the Galileo colt from last of six to lead at the three-sixteenths pole for a comfortable 2 1/4-length victory in the fist serious prep for the Epsom Derby.

Lizard's Desire, a heartbreaking nose second to Gloria de Campeao in the Dubai World Cup on March 27, returns to action at Sha Tin on Sunday for a tilt at the Group 1. $1.8 million Queen Elizabeth II Cup at 1 1/4 miles on turf. Christophe Soumillon, who rode Lizard's Desire to victory in a pair of handicaps on the Meydan Tapeta surface this winter, reclaims the ride from Kevin Shea, who rode him in the World Cup.