Kauto Star is clearly the horse to beat in the 3 5/16-mile $798,000 Cheltenham Gold Cup Chase on Friday. The 7-year-old gelding has won all five of his starts this season, among them victories over prime Gold Cup rivals Exotic Dancer, Beef or Salmon, and L’Ami.

Kauto Star also holds a seven-length decision in Sandown’s Tingle Creek Chase on Dec. 2 over Voy Por Ustedes, the winner of Wednesday’s Queen Mother Champion Chase at Cheltenham. Trained by Paul Nicholls, Kauto Star goes on any sort of ground and will have regular rider Ruby Walsh in the saddle.

Sublimity, a French-bred 7-year-old horse by Selkirk, won the $684,000 Champion Hurdle at Cheltenham on Tuesday, beating two former winners of the race.

In a move that is sending shockwaves throughout the international racing and breeding communities, Coolmore Stud has retired its leading classic hope Holy Roman Emperor as a replacement for the possibly infertile George Washington, the champion European juvenile in 2005 and co-champion European 3-year-old in 2006.

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.