DUBAI, United Arab Emirates - There is something about buying a potentially wonderful racehorse that seems to appeal to some people nearly as much as actually racing one.

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates - Science fiction is an especially popular form of manga, Japanese comics. Galloping around the Nad Al Sheba track on Monday, Vermilion seemed like he might have emerged straight out of just such a publication.

Redoute's Choice continued to be the sire of choice Tuesday at day two of the Magic Millions Conrad Jupiters select yearling sale on Australia's Gold Coast. One day after one of his sons topped the opening session at about $657,000, another brought about $916,000 on Tuesday to lead the sale so far.

Tuesday's session-topper, at $1 million in local currency, is out of New Zealand champion and Australian Group 1 winner Savannah Success, making him a half-brother to dual Australian Group 1 winner Savabeel. Dean Watt, on behalf of Dynamic Syndications, purchased the colt.

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates - When Asiatic Boy waltzed to a 9 1/2-length victory one year ago in the UAE Derby, his fourth straight blowout victory last winter in Dubai, it was easy to flip the calendar forward: This looked like a horse good enough to win the Dubai World Cup in 2008.

"That was always in our minds," conceded Mike de Kock, Asiatic Boy's trainer.

Asiatic Boy has indeed made it to the big race, but he starts in the $6 million World Cup here on Saturday night - one of 13 likely starters for the race - confronted with two major issues.

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates - Steve Asmussen is a doer. When you have gotten up before the sun to take care of and ride horses since you were a child, when you oversee one of the largest racing operations in the world, one spread all over North America, you are a man of action.

Steve Asmussen also is a thinker. And do not believe for a nanosecond that every move he makes with Curlin, the reigning Horse of the Year, is not the product of incessant mental activity.

"He's kind of a horse that consumes your thoughts," Asmussen said, reached by phone this week.

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates - On the average day at most racetracks in the United States, racing secretaries and their underlings scurry frenetically about, trying to attract a sufficient number of horses onto a particular race card. Too many races, too few horses, goes the slogan of the era.

Let it be said that field size will not be a concern this weekend at Nad Al Sheba Racecourse in Dubai.

The British auction house Bonhams will offer racing memorabilia related to such iconic figures as Fred Archer and Dorothy Paget as part of its third annual Racing Sale at Newmarket, England, on July 19, the company announced.

The Newmarket, England-based International Racing Bureau, for decades a key coordinator in the recruitment and shipping of horses to the world's major international race meetings, has been sold to Newmarket Investments, a publicly quoted company that made the purchase for 850,000 pounds, approximately $1.7 million.

In relinquishing their shares, chief International Racing Bureau executives Mark O'Connor and Nick Clarke have parted company with the company. Alastair Donald remains as its managing director.

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates – As usual, a hot wind blew over the desert around Nad Al Sheba Racecourse on Monday morning. Sand and pollution dirtied the air between the racetrack and Dubai’s burgeoning skyline, but out on the racetrack, 2007 Horse of the Year Curlin was clean, crisp, and smooth as silk in his final workout for Saturday’s $6 million Dubai World Cup.

Doug Watson clinched his second United Arab Emirates trainer's title at Jebel Ali on Friday when Janadel won a seven-furlong handicap in the last UAE meet before Dubai World Cup Night on March 29.

With his 35th win from 367 starters at the 2007-08 UAE season, Watson, a former assistant to Kiaran McLaughlin, has a one-victory lead on Musabah Al Muhairi, who will not have a starter on World Cup Night.