Heavy ground played havoc with the form at Saint-Cloud as the 11-1 Pearl Sky surprised a sterling group in the Group 3, $105,000 Prix Exbury, the first group race of the season in Europe.

The indomitable Detroit City heads a high-class edition of the Grade 1, $695,000 Champion Hurdle at Cheltenham on Tuesday, opening day of Britain's National Hunt Festival.

Montare brings her tall reputation as an autumn horse to Saint-Cloud on Saturday for the initial group race of the European season, the $105,000 Prix Exbury, a 1 1/4-mile Group 3 contest that is being used as a possible springboard to the Dubai Sheema Classic by three of its 11 runners.

Folk cruised to a front-running victory over five outclassed rivals to win the listed $250,000 UAE Oaks at Nad Al Sheba on Thursday night. Never fully extended, the Quiet American filly was following a similarly handy score in the UAE 1000 Guineas three weeks ago in duplicating the feat of her half-sister Danuta, who pulled off the same double in 2003. She will now challenge Asiatic Boy, winner of the UAE 2000 Guineas and Al Bastikiya, in the UAE Derby on March 31.

Folk, the front-running winner of the UAE 1000 Guineas on Feb. 15, will attempt to stretch her speed an extra furlong to 1 1/8 miles at Nad Al Sheba Thursday night in the listed $250,000 UAE Oaks.

Vengeance of Rain's return to winning ways in the Group 1 Hong Kong Gold Cup at Sha Tin on Sunday may have earned him a ticket to Nad Al Sheba for the Dubai Sheema Classic on March 31.

His nose decision over Viva Pataca was a replication of his last two victories: the Hong Kong Cup in December 2005 and in the International Cup Trial a month earlier. Victory in the 1 1/4-mile Hong Kong Gold Cup, worth $1.03 million, was the fifth Group 1 success for Vengeance of Rain, a 6-year-old New Zealand-bred son of Sir Tristram.

The former U.S.-based runner Terrific Challenge was one of the big winners Thursday at Nad Al Sheba in Dubai in an evening of preps for the Dubai World Cup card that lost much of its interest when Godolphin's unbeaten Cigar Mile winner Discreet Cat was scratched owing to a slightly raised temperature.

Discreet Cat, Godolphin's unbeaten Forestry colt, was scratched from the Lahan Buri Nahaar Stakes at Nad Al Sheba in Dubai on Thursday because of an elevated temperature, according to a report in The Racing Post.

The scratch was a blow to Discreet Cat's preparations for the $6 million Dubai World Cup on March 31, the word's richest race. The 4-year-old colt will be trained up to the World Cup, according to Godolphin.

Candy Stripes, the sire of the reigning Horse of the Year, Invasor, was euthanized at the age of 25 on Wednesday at Haras Carampanque in San Antonio de Areco in the province of Buenos Aires, Argentina, where he had been pensioned since 2004.

A Kentucky-bred son of Blushing Groom out of the Lyphard mare Bubble Company, Candy Stripes had a French racing career that was highlighted by a second-place finish in the 1985 French 2000 Guineas. There followed a stud career in Kentucky and Brazil, but most notably in Argentina, where he was champion sire in 1994-95 and 1999-2000.

NEW YORK - The annual American assault on Nad Al Sheba's Dubai World Cup Night on March 31 could be met with more than the usual resistance, not only from the far-flung array of trainers who have been wintering in Dubai for the International Racing Carnival, but from strong contingents converging from Japan and Australia.