Midas Touch gave Aidan O Brien another prospect for the Epsom Derby when he won the Group 2, $129,000 Derrinstown Stud Derby Trial at Leopardstown on Sunday. But with just four horses having run in the 1 1/4-mile classic prep, it remains to be seen just where he stands in the Derby pecking order.

Ice Blue will head straight to the Prix du Jockey-Club, or French Derby, after his victory at Saint-Cloud on Saturday in the Group 2, $168,000, Prix Greffulhe. In chalking up another big win for his red-hot sire, Dansili, Ice Blue overcame trouble with a superb turn of foot to defeat Handsome Devil by three-quarters of a length.

York begins its three-day classic trial May Meeting on Wednesday when the undefeated Aviate tests the English Oaks waters in the Group 3, $97,000 Musidora Stakes. Aviate, a filly trained by Henry Cecil, made it 2 for 2 at Ascot on April 28 when she took a one-mile conditions race, but there are some doubts about her ability to get much further than a mile. She is a Dansili full sister to Early March, who won the seven-furlong, Group 3 Prix La Rochette as a 2-year-old but who never ran beyond a mile. Eddie Ahern will ride.

Godolphin has switched Cutlass Bay, its undefeated winner of last Sunday's Group 1 Prix Ganay, from trainer Andre Fabre at Chantilly to Saeed bin Suroor in Newmarket.

The move, described by Godolphin racing manager Simon Crisford as "part of the arrangement we have with Andre," is the latest in a long line of Godolphin transferals from Fabre to Suroor.

Aidan O'Brien will saddle two of the four runners in the Group 2, $126,000 Derrinstown Stud Derby Trial at Leopardstown on Sunday, but both of them, Midas Touch and At First Sight, could be vulnerable to the Jim Bolger-trained Reiteration.

Harbinger continues to give promise of great expectations. On Friday, he displayed his stoutheartedness with a 1 1/2-length victory in the 1 5/8-mile, 89-yard Ormonde Stakes, a Chester Group 3 contest worth $111,000. Handily placed in fourth by Ryan Moore, Harbinger, a son of Dansili trained by Michael Stoute, led at the quarter pole and ran on strongly as the 8-13 favorite to defeat the Aidan O'Brien-trained Age of Aquarius. The winning time on good to soft ground was 2:56.73.

The 1 1/4-mile, Group 2 Prix Greffulhe at Saint-Cloud on Saturday is a key trial for the French Derby, but this year's $166,000 renewal includes not a single group race winner. Green Rock won the listed Criterium de l'Ouest at Craon last fall and Paris Vegas took the listed Prix Policeman at Cagnes-sur-Mer in February, but the winner is more likely to come from one of the improving, untested types in the eight-horse field.

Oct. 3 is a long way away, but the $5.2 million Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe is in the back of the minds of Christophe Clement and Neil Drysdale. Clement dropped the name of his dual Eclipse Award winner Gio Ponti into the list of 141 Arc nominees announced on Thursday by France-Galop, and Drysdale did the same with Marsh Side.

They are the only American-trained horses among the nominees for the 1 1/2-mile Arc, which hasn't had an American runner since the Billy Wright-trained El Senor finished ninth in 1991.

Harbinger can take another step forward at Chester on Friday when he goes in the $113,000 Ormonde Stakes, a 1 5/8-mile, 89-yard Group 3 contest named for the horse widely regarded as the 19th Century's best. A 4-year-old son of the red-hot stallion Dansili, Harbinger is the latest middle-distance prospect trained by Michael Stoute.

The Group 3, $106,000 Chester Vase starts the Epsom Derby trial meeting at Chester Racecourse south of Liverpool on Thursday, but don't expect to find the Derby winner in its suspect seven-runner field. None of the leading chances for the big race is running, leaving Critical Moment as the favorite for the 1 1/2-mile, 66-yard contest.