Horse of the Year Azeri heads the list of invitees to the $6 million Dubai World Cup at Nad Al Sheba March 29.

The daughter of Jade Hunter is one of five American-trained horses to receive an invitation to the World Cup, the others being Medaglia d'Oro, Harlan's Holiday, Congaree, and Repent. The 1 1/4-mile race has been won by American horses in three of its seven runnings. Cigar won the inaugural edition in 1996. Bob Baffert, Congaree's trainer, then engineered Silver Charm's 1998 triumph and followed up with Captain Steve in 2001.

Symboli Kris S, third in the Japan Cup behind Falbrav and Sarafan, was named 2002 Horse of the Year by the Japan Racing Association on Monday.

A Kentucky-bred son of Kris S., Symboli Kris S wrapped Grade 1 victories against older horses in the Autumn Tenno Sho and the Arima Kinen, or Japanese Grand Prix, around his third-place Japan Cup finish.

Trained by Kazuo Fujisawa for Symboli Stud, Symboli Kris S won five of his 10 starts in 2002 for earnings of $4.9 million. His efforts also earned him honors as Japan's champion 3-year-old colt.

Estimraar scored a 1 3/4-length tally over State Shinto on Thursday night in Round 1 of the Maktoum Challenge, a Group 3, one-mile race at Nad Al Sheba that serves as the first step to the Dubai World Cup on March 29.

But the victory of the 6-year-old Estimraar is more likely to lead to the Group 2 Godolphin Mile on the World Cup undercard. He had won four straight between seven furlongs and 1 1/8 miles at Nad Al Sheba in the fall before losing by a neck to Curule on Jan. 2.

Twenty-three new listed races will be run in Britain this year, the British Flat Pattern Panel said on Tuesday.

The announcement comes on the heels of last week's upgrading of 19 British group races by the European Pattern Race Committee. The net increase in British listed races will be 13, as 10 former listed races have been upgraded to Group 3 status.

Kieren Fallon, Britain's champion jockey in five of the last six years, has admitted himself to a treatment center in Ireland in an effort to overcome his problems with alcohol.

In an exclusive interview with the Sunday Times of London, Fallon said that he had checked into the unnamed center on Dec. 30, thus ending weeks of speculation about the 37-year-old Irishman's whereabouts. Fallon told the Sunday Times that he would be undergoing treatment for thirty days.

NEW YORK - That 2002 was a subpar year in the Thoroughbred world was clear, as evidenced by the International Classification Committee.

Rock of Gibraltar is the highweight at just 128 pounds, the lowest highweight rating in the Classification's 25-year history. Marienbard, Azeri, and Volponi are the other big winners of 2002, but with similarly low ratings, an indication that it was perhaps the weakest year for Thoroughbreds worldwide in the last quarter century.

The annual rankings, compiled by a panel of international handicappers, include horses from throughout the world, except Africa and South America, and determine Europe's official champions.

Royal Ascot's Queen Anne Stakes heads a list of 28 European races that have been upgraded for 2003, but it is the only race that has been newly granted Group 1 status.

The straight one-mile race will also receive a purse increase from $216,000 to $400,000, but will now be restricted to 4-year-olds and up and will lose its long-held place as the opening event on the first day at the Royal Meeting. It will now be run as the fourth race on that card after the St. James's Palace Stakes, a Group 1 mile for 3-year-old colts.

NEW YORK - It doesn't take a Chinese fortune cookie manufacturer to determine the major trends that will be developing on the international racing scene in 2003.

The continued dominance in Europe of the Maktoum family and the Tabor/Magnier consortium will proceed apace. The number of nominations they have been made to this year's Epsom Derby serves as a perfect barometer of their strengths. The Maktoums, Godolphin included, have entered 187, while Tabor and Magnier have 53 on the list. They account for 240 of the 568 nominations, a whopping 42.3 percent of the total.

The Chinese Year of the Horse became the Thoroughbred Year of the Rock as Rock of Gibraltar had a history-making season in which he won five Group 1 races before being upset in the Breeders' Cup Mile.

Though Rock of Gibraltar was the biggest international story of 2002, there were a number of other worthy milestones.