The world's best steeplechase and hurdle meeting gets under way at Cheltenham on Tuesday with the Smurfit Kappa Champion Hurdle the highlight on the first day of the four-day stand. The meeting culminates on Friday with the long-awaited third clash between Kauto Star and Denman in the Gold Cup.

Sha Tin will be the site of two Hong Kong Group 1 races on Sunday, but the big news is the absence of Sacred Kingdom from the $580,000 Queen's Silver Jubilee Cup. The world's highest rated sprinter will forgo the seven-furlong dash in favor of a tilt at the six-furlong, $2 million Takamatsunomiya Kinen at Chukyo in Japan on March 28.

Gitano Hernando is looking good for his March 27 date in the Dubai World Cup, trainer Marco Botti reported on his website on Friday. The Newmarket-based Botti was upbeat about the preparations of his recent Winter Derby Trial winner.

"He has come out of that race in good order and is training well," Botti said. "I thought the race at Lingfield was the perfect prep race for him, as they went a good pace and he was able to quicken up well without having a hard race. He should come on for his first run [of the season[ and be spot-on for Dubai."

John Velazquez has picked himself up a Dubai World Cup ride in the shape of Crowded House. Velazquez will replace Jamie Spencer on the colt, a Rainbow Quest 4-year-old who was most recently a half-length second to Allybar in Round 2 of the 1 3/16-mile, Group 3 Maktoum Challenge at Meydan on Feb. 18.

Goldikova, twice winner of the Breeders' Cup Mile, will make her seasonal debut in the 1 1/8-mile, 55-yard Prix d'Ispahan at Longchamp on May 23. Her trainer, Freddie Head, made that announcement at Auteuil on Sunday when Goldikova, a 5-year-old daughter of Anabaa owned by Alain and Gerard Wertheimer, was named France's 2009 champion older horse.

Vodka, a seven-time Grade 1 winner in her native Japan and the highest earning racemare in Thoroughbred history, has been retired after having bled in the Maktoum Challenge at Meydan on Thursday. Trained by Katsuhiko Sumii for Yuzo Tanimizu, Vodka, a 6-year-old daughter of the Brian's Time stallion Tanino Gimlet, earned $13,147,826 in winning 10 of 26 lifetime starts. She will be shipped from Dubai to Ireland to be bred to Sea the Stars at the Aga Khan's Gilltown Stud.

Canadian-bred Sterwins furnished a last-to-first rally to win the $97,000 Sandy Lane Gold Cup at the Garrison Savannah racecourse in Bridgetown, Barbados on Saturday.

In extreme heat and humidity and racing right-handed on a baked turf course, Sterwins, under expert handling by champion jockey Patrick Husbands, swung wide into the homestretch of the 1 1/8-mile event. He was up in the final sixteenth to win by about a half-length over Bribon, last year's Metropolitan Handicap winner.

Aaron Gryder and Kent Desormeaux won a race apiece in the Meydan Masters jockey challenge at Meydan Racecourse in Dubai on Friday night, the last meeting at the new track until Dubai World Cup Night on March 27.

Bribon, winner of last year's Grade 1 Metropolitan Handicap, and Sterwins, a multiple Grade 3 winner, top a field of 14 entered for the 29th Sandy Lane Barbados Gold Cup at the Garrison Savannah racecourse in Bridgetown, Barbados, on Saturday. Both Bribon and Sterwins are owned by Barbados residents.

The 1 1/8-mile turf event, run over a right-handed course with tight turns, is worth $97,000 and is the most important race run in Barbados.

Breeders' Cup Juvenile winner Vale of York failed in his return to the races at Meydan on Thursday night as he faded to fifth in the listed $250,000 Al Bastakiya, a course and distance prep for the 1 3/16-mile UAE Derby. Vale of York's owner, Godolphin, was bailed out, however, by the brilliant performance of Mendip, who cruised to an impressive 6 1/4-length victory.