Longshot Blue Canari gave owner Jean-Louis Bouchard a fourth win in the last 11 runnings of the French Derby when he took the Prix du Jockey-Club at Chantilly on Sunday.
But it was the brilliant reappearance of last year's European champion 2-year-old, Bago, in the Group 1 Prix Jean Prat that sent the crowd home buzzing.
Now unbeaten in five career starts, Bago, trained by Jonathan Pease, was expected to need the run and was weak in the betting as the 3-2 chance.
North Light gave his trainer, Sir Michael Stoute, and jockey, Kieren Fallon, their second consecutive victory in the Vodafone Derby at Epsom on Saturday. North Light beat Rule of Law by 1 1/2 lengths, with Let the Lion Roar and Percussionist heads back in third and fourth. The pair won with Kris Kin last year, while Stoute was also victorious with Shergar (1981) and Shahrastani (1986).
Voix du Nord is the only Group 1 winner among the field of 17 for the $1.4 million Prix du Jockey Club (French Derby), run over 1 1/2 miles on turf at Chantilly on Sunday.
Voix du Nord ended his juvenile year by taking the Group 1 Criterium de Saint-Cloud and won again at the highest level in the Prix Lupin at Longchamp last month.
Snow Ridge, runner-up in the 2000 Guineas, can give Frankie Dettori his first Epsom Derby winner as 14 runners line up for the 225th renewal on Saturday.
Although the race has been overshadowed by the withdrawal earlier this week of the ante-post favorite, Yeats, it still offers an intriguing mix of established contenders and lively outsiders. They should combine to create a compelling contest.
The Group 1 Vodafone Oaks at Epsom on Friday has drawn a field of seven. The two favorites, Punctilious, ridden by Frankie Dettori, and Sundrop, Kerrin McEvoy aboard, are from Godolphin, while three more come from the Aidan O'Brien stable.
Jamie Spencer rides the leading Irish hope, All Too Beautiful, who is unbeaten in two races. Ouija Board, who won by six lengths at Newmarket on May 2, has the best chance of upsetting the two big stables.
Jockey Gary Stevens said that he plans to appeal a 20-day suspension he received from Italian racing officials Sunday for failing to ride a horse he felt should have been scratched.
Stevens said if the appeal is not granted, he may cut short his one-year contract to ride first-string for top French trainer Andre Fabre.
Sunday, on the Italian Derby program at Capannelle racecourse in Rome, Stevens was booked to ride Sopran Foldan for trainer Bruno Grizzetti in the Group 3 Premio Tudini over six furlongs on turf.
King Kamehameha put his name in the record books with an eye-catching performance in the Japanese Derby at Tokyo Racecourse on Sunday, winning by 1 1/2 lengths.
In winning the derby, at $3 million the richest race in the world for 3-year-olds, King Kamehameha covered 1 1/2 miles on turf in 2:23.30, setting a record for the 2-year-old Tokyo track and coming within 1.1 seconds of Horlicks's Japan Cup mark set on the old course. A son of Kingmambo bred in Japan by Northern Farm, King Kamehameha has now won 6 of his 7 lifetime starts for earnings of $4.1 million.
THE CURRAGH, Ireland - The weather couldn't have been better for the 2000 Guineas at The Curragh on Saturday. Bright sunshine bathed the great limestone plain in County Kildare, and the Irish, who aren't used to good weather, celebrated as if at a party. Dozens of kids chased each other around, ladies dressed sparingly to reveal their charms, and the champagne bar overflowed with revelers. So relaxed was the atmosphere that one bookie's wife, very pregnant, was seen studying a book entitled "What to Expect in the First Years" between races.