DUBAI, United Arab Emirates - The American domination of the $6 million Dubai World Cup is expected to continue on Saturday when Congrats, Choctaw Nation, Lundy's Liability, and Roses in May will start in the world's richest race in this desert country.

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates - Temporarily based halfway around the world, trainer Paulo Lobo is taking no chances while preparing Pico Central for Saturday's $2 million Golden Shaheen Sprint at Nad Al Sheba racecourse.

A finalist for the Eclipse Award for champion sprinter of 2004, Pico Central suffered a bruised right front foot earlier this year while training in California. The injury prevented Pico Central from having a prep race in February for the Golden Shaheen, the world's richest sprint and a highlight of the undercard of the $6 million Dubai World Cup.

Yukio Okabe, the winningest jockey in the history of Japanese racing, has retired at age 56.

The winner of every Japanese classic at least once save the Japanese Oaks, Okabe rode 2,943 winners from 18,646 rides in Japan, among them 31 Grade 1 races.

Okabe will be best remembered as the man who rode Symboli Rudolf in all of his races. That horse's seven Grade 1 victories included the Japanese Triple Crown - 2000 Guineas, Derby, and St. Leger - in 1984. Okabe also won Japan's premier race, the Japan Cup, twice, aboard Symboli Rudolf in 1985 and on Tokai Teio in 1992.

Vengeance of Rain signaled to the world that he is ready to take on international competition with an emphatic victory in Sunday's $1.79 million Group 1 Hong Kong Derby at Sha Tin.

A 4-year-old son of Zabeel, Vengeance of Rain won with a strong late run under Anthony Delpech. The 2-1 favorite, he won going away by 2 3/4 lengths over Russian Pearl, with Sambuca a half-length back in third. The winning time for the 1 1/4 miles on a good to yielding turf course was 2:04.70.

Irish trainers are likely to dominate the Smurfit Champion Hurdle, over 2 1/16 miles at Cheltenham on Tuesday, as they supply the top seven horses in the betting.

Last year's winner, Hardy Eustace, was 33-1 then but more like 3-1 now, and will vie for favoritism with Back in Front. Hardy Eustace has won twice at Cheltenham and Back in Front three times.

The other Irish hopes have also made winning trips to England in the past 12 months, and both Accordion Etoile and Brave Inca have scored at Cheltenham.

Led by Roses in May, the runner-up in the 2004 Breeders' Cup Classic, a strong group of American-based runners are being sent to the Middle East for the Dubai World Cup program at Nad Al Sheba on March 26.

The biggest prize of the program - the Group 1, $6 million Dubai World Cup - will have the largest American contingent, with four likely starters.

The seven-race program is worth $15.25 million, the richest day of racing in the world. Six races are for Thoroughbreds; each is likely to have at least one American-based starter.

NEW YORK - "Bananas is my business!" chirped the Brazilian Bombshell, Carmen Miranda. The exotic starlet gave the 40's Hollywood film scene its first taste of Brazilian culture. More recently, Brazil has sent to California incendiaries of the four-legged type, such as Leroidesanimaux, Lundy's Liability, and License to Run.

The Prix Exbury, postponed when last Friday's meeting at Saint-Cloud was abandoned because of frozen ground, will begin the European group race season at that suburban Paris track on Thursday.

The 1 1/4-mile Group 3 Exbury, valued at $99,000, has drawn a field of nine, three of them group race winners last year, with Lord du Sud the most prominent of the trio.

American hopes should have risen after a series of inconclusive results at "Super Saturday" at Nad Al Sheba on Saturday night.

International stars Cherry Mix and Yard-Arm proved ineffective on dirt as the unheralded Argentine-bred Chiquitin took Round 3 of the Maktoum Challenge, the final local prep for the $6 million Dubai World Cup.

In the prep for the Dubai Golden Shaheen, a race dominated in recent years by American runners, Estimraar gave a number of nondescript dirt sprinters a sound beating in the Group 3, $200,000 Mahab Al Shimaal.

Six course and distance preps for Dubai World Cup Night on March 26 will be run Saturday at Nad Al Sheba on what is billed as "Super Saturday."

Prime among the races, worth a total of $1.25 million, is the 1 1/4-mile Round 3 of the Maktoum Challenge, a Grade 2, $300,000 World Cup prep highlighted by South African champion Yard-Arm and last October's Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe runner-up, Cherry Mix.