One week after dirt-turned-turf performer Vela Azul captured the Japan Cup (G1), Jun Light Bolt illustrated the benefit of a surface switch in the opposite direction in Sunday’s Champions Cup (G1) at Chukyo.

UAE Derby (G2) star Crown Pride, who wound up 13th in the Kentucky Derby (G1), takes on reigning champion T O Keynes at Chukyo.

Just 12 years after Yeats won the Gold Cup (G1) for a record fourth time, Stradivarius is in position to emulate that historic achievement at Royal Ascot Thursday. At the opposite end of the distance spectrum, the Norfolk S. (G2) serves as a “Win and You’re In” for the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf Sprint (G2)