The four highest-rated juveniles in Europe will square off at the Curragh on Sunday in a white-hot renewal of the $470,000 Phoenix Stakes, the first Group 1 race of the year for 2-year-olds in the Northern Hemisphere.

Art Connoisseur had jaws dropping at Royal Ascot when he came from first to last to win the 18-runner Group 2 Coventry Stakes by

2 1/4 lengths at the same six-furlong distance as the Phoenix. Now 3 for 3, he is a Michael Bell-trained son of the Kris S. stallion Lucky Story and will be ridden by Jamie Spencer.

Lord Admiral did his Arlington Million prospects little good at Leopardstown on Thursday evening, when he finished two lengths second to King of Rome in the Group 3, $109,000 Meld Stakes. The 3-year-old winner, only sixth in the German Derby on July 6, covered the 1 1/4 miles on good to firm ground in 2:04.05 as the 6-5 favorite, capping a big day for his trainer, Aidan O'Brien, who had earlier showed off a sharp looking 2-year-old.

Duke of Marmalade steps into uncharted waters at Ascot on Saturday when the three-time Group 1 winner tries 1 1/2 miles for the first time in the $1.7 million King George VI and Queen Elizabeth Stakes.

Patrons of Arlington Park could be hearing more than the usual number of foreign accents on Million Day this year. Thirteen horses from England, Ireland, France, and Italy still have one of Arlington's three big international races in mind at this date, with five of those running this weekend in make-or-break preps that will determine whether they will be in Chicago on Aug. 9.

Beginning on Jan. 1, 2009, all foreign-trained horses meant to run in Britain must be declared as not having been trained on non-therapeutic substances, the British Horseracing Authority announced on Monday. Most notable among the banned substances are anabolic steroids.

Adlerflug won for the first time since landing last year's German Derby when he stormed clear to take the Group 1, $245,000 Deutschland-Preis at Dusseldorf on Sunday.

Taking advantage of the soft ground that he loves, Adlerflug led virtually throughout to defeat the 7-5 favorite Quijano by seven lengths, getting the 1 1/2 miles in 2:37.58 with Norwegian rider Fredrik Johansson aboard.

All of Germany's best older horses will line up at Dusseldorf on Sunday for the Deutschland-Preis, a Group 1, 1 1/2-mile race worth $245,000. The best of them may be Quijano, the winner of the Grosser Preis von Baden and the Gran Premio di Milano at this level and distance.

Buffeted by a decline in the Japanese economy, the Japan Racing Horse Association's three-day yearling and foal sale ended Wednesday with a 16-percent decline in gross sales, an 11-percent drop in average, and a 30-percent buy-back rate.

The auction's topper was a yearling by Agnes Tachyon out of Blue Avenue who sold for about $2.3 million to construction executive Riichi Kondo. The colt is a half-brother to Japanese champion Kurofune and Grade 2 winner Bella Bellucci. Northern Farm consigned the sale-topper.

Although it is nearly three months until the Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe will be run at Longchamp, this past weekend was chock-full of events that will have an impact on the great race. While Curlin's modest performance in the Man o' War Stakes on Saturday at Belmont Park impelled Ladbrokes to remove him from its Arc betting, just two days later Montmartre thrust himself into favoritism for what will almost certainly be the world's richest race come Oct. 5.

A $2 million colt from the much-anticipated first crop of Deep Impact stole the show Tuesday at the Japan Racing Horse Association's foal sale on the Japanese island of Hokkaido.

The price, 200 million yen, was well below the sale's 2006 foal record of 600 million yen, but helped Deep Impact make a strong commercial debut. A 6-year-old Sunday Silence horse, he was Japan's Horse of the Year in 2005 and 2006. His 18 foals at the two-day auction's opening session brought an average price of about $652,647.