Tomahawk showed his well-being on his seasonal reappearance for trainer Aidan O'Brien when scoring a comfortable one length victory over the Kevin Prendergast-trained Abunawwas in the Listed Oak Lodge Sires Loughbrown Stakes, over seven furlongs, at the Curragh, Sunday.

While racing returned to Paris with the season-opening meeting at Maisons-Laffitte on Feb. 28, the British and Irish flat racing seasons are only beginning this week.

Thursday, the John Dunlop-trained Dandoun won his second straight Doncaster Mile, the listed race that serves as the Yorkshire track's opening-day feature. The Curragh reopens on Sunday with Tomahawk favored to take the listed Loughbrown Stakes. Tomahawk is an Aidan O'Brien-trained Triple Crown nominee who finished ninth in last fall's Breeders' Cup Juvenile.

With the arrival on Tuesday of UAE Derby contenders Peasant and Pellegrino from Argentina, all but two of the foreign runners for the March 29 Dubai World Cup night, with $15.25 million in purses the world's richest card, have arrived safely. The exceptions were France's two leading candidates, Aquarelliste and Ange Gabriel.

The Irish flat-racing season gets under way at The Curragh on Sunday with Tomahawk heading a field of seven 3-year-olds in the seven-furlong Loughbrown Stakes.

An Aidan O'Brien-trained son of Seattle Slew, Tomahawk will be making his first start since he finished eighth in the Breeders' Cup Juvenile. He also was second last year in a pair of British Group 1 races, the Middle Park Stakes and the Dewhurst Stakes. Tomahawk is the first of eight O'Brien-trained Triple Crown nominees to start this year.

NEW YORK - Coral Eurobet, the British bookmakers, have installed Nayef as the 2-1 favorite for the March 29 Dubai World Cup. Harlan's Holiday is the 8-1 fifth choice in the $6 million Group 1 race.

Two Godolphin trainees, Moon Ballad at 3-1 and Grandera at 5-1, will go in the World Cup. The French mare Aquarelliste is listed at 6-1. Coral's other Dubai World Cup prices are: Gold Allure 14-1, Grundlefoot 25-1, Blue Burner 28-1, and Sei Mi and Hans Anderson 40-1.

Xtra Heat signaled her readiness to keep the Dubai Golden Shaheen title in the United States with a blistering workout at Nad Al Sheba on Wednesday.

The 5-year-old Xtra Heat was timed in 58.80 seconds for five furlongs, with trainer John Salzman in attendance. Xtra Heat is the probable favorite in a 10-horse Golden Shaheen field that will include three other American trainees: Avanzado, Captain Squire, and My Cousin Matt.

The British Horseracing Board has introduced a world-record 5-million-pound ($8 million) bonus to a horse who wins four selected races in England this summer.

A 1-million-pound ($1.6 million) bonus will go to any horse who wins either the Epsom Derby for 3-year-olds, the English Oaks for 3-year-old fillies, the Coronation Cup, a 1 1/2-mile race for 4-year-olds and up, or the Prince of Wales's Stakes at 1 1/4 miles for 4-year-olds and up, and then goes on to win both the 1 1/4-mile Eclipse Stakes and the 1 1/2-mile King George VI and Queen Elizabeth Diamond Stakes.

The Dubai World Cup is on, no matter what the situation in Iraq, or so says Dubai World Cup Committee chairman Les Benton, who promises that a record 16 American-trained horses will run in six races at Nad Al Sheba on March 29.

"The Dubai World Cup will go ahead, there is absolutely no doubt," Benton said after a British report last weekend said that the $15.25-million evening of racing would be called off in the event of war in Iraq.

Some of Europe's most promising classic prospects did not rate at the top of the International Classifica-tion's list of 2002 juveniles.

Oasis Dream, trained by John Gosden for Khalid Abdullah, earned a big figure for winning a fast running of the six-furlong Middle Park Stakes. He topped the Classification as well as Timeform's Top 100, but Oasis Dream may not quite be up to the mile of the 2000 Guineas. He is a son of Green Desert, a stallion whose best offspring have been sprinters like Sheikh Albadou, Owington, and Tamarisk.

Mezzo Soprano maintained her unbeaten record Thursday night with a sharp three-length tally in the one-mile, $250,000 UAE 1000 Guineas at Nad Al Sheba.

Mezzo Soprano, trained by Saeed bin Suroor, is now in a position to challenge her Godolphin stablemate and Moonshell Mile winner, Danuta, in the 1 1/8-mile UAE Oaks on April 3. She had previously taken her only other start, a one-mile turf maiden race at Deauville on Aug. 10. Gonfilia, a German-bred filly purchased by Godolphin after easy wins at Dortmund and Hannover, was second. The winning time was 1:37.55.