Special Duty was awarded the 1000 Guineas Stakes in the Newmarket stewards room after she was nipped on the line by Jacqueline Quest. Only a nose separated them, but the stewards ruled that the 66-1 Jacqueline Quest and her rider, Tim Queally, had carried the Stephane Pasquier-ridden 9-2 favorite right through the final sixteenth-mile and gave the $608,000 fillies classic to Special Duty.

Cutlass Bay survived a stewards' inquiry at Longchamp on Sunday to win the $398,000, Group 1 Prix Ganay. Godolphin's Andre Fabre-trained son of Halling rallied form fourth to lead inside the final furlong of the 1 5/16-mile contest but was leaning right on Shalanaya. Maxime Guyon pulled Cutlass Bay off the Aga Khan's filly to cross the line three-quarters of a length in front, and the judges later determined that the incident had not prevented Shalanaya from winning. Cutlass Bay covered the 1 5/16 miles on good ground in 2:11.80.

Jaguar Mail handled the step up in distance to two miles to win the Grade 1, $2.7 million Spring Tenno Sho at Kyoto on Sunday, defeating defending titleholder Meiner Kitz by three-quarters of a length. The Noriyuki Hori-trained son of Jungle Pocket, ridden by Australian Craig Williams, rallied to lead 50 yards from the line while traveling the distance in 3:15.70 on firm ground.

Makfi scored a 33-1 shocker in the 2000 Guineas at Newmarket on Saturday, handing the much heralded even-money favorite St Nicholas Abbey a resounding defeat.

In becoming the first French-trained horse to win the first leg of the English Triple Crown since Pennekamp in 1995, Makfi ran off to a 1 1/4-length victory over the 16-1 longshot Dick Turpin.

Cutlass Bay should rack up the first Group 1 race of his promising career on Sunday, when he will go off the favorite for Longchamp's 1 5/16-mile, $397,000 Prix Ganay. A Halling 4-year-old, Cutlass Bay made it 4 for 4 for his injury-plagued career by winning the 1 1/4--mile, Group 2 Prix d'Harcourt at Longchamp on April 11 and will have benefited from that outing.

Newmarket's Rowley Mile, upon which Sunday's $608,000 1000 Guineas Stakes will be run, requires horses to see out the trip. The final furlong is uphill, so any filly who expects to earn classic black-type Sunday had better come equipped with the proper pedigree.

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.