Momentum in the World Series Racing Championship, in which just three legs have been run to date, picks up considerably this weekend with the battleground shifting from Ireland to Germany in just 24 hours.

At Leopardstown on Saturday, the Ireland The Food Island Champion Stakes (Gr.1-2000m) is unquestionably the classier of the two contests, the other being the Grosser Bugatti Preis (Gr.1-2400m) at Baden-Baden the following day.

Let's start with the big race in Dublin first, for which Alamshar, Europe's leading three-year-old, has been installed as a 5/4 favourite by local bookmakers.

Trained nearby on The Curragh by John Oxx for the Aga Khan, Alamshar, has done nothing but improve in leaps and bounds all season. After winning the Derby Trial (over this course and distance) in the spring, Alamshar finished third in the Vodafone Derby at Epsom, and three weeks later caused an upset when showing guts and class in equal measure as he overturned by half a length the hitherto unbeaten Dalakhani in the Budweiser Irish Derby.

But this was nothing compared to the hiding dished out to a field containing nine individual Group 1 winners in the King George VI and Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Stakes, the second leg of the World Series at Ascot in late July. Here Alamshar, for whom there had been a few negative pre-race vibes, made a top class field look pedestrian, slamming them by three-and-a-half lengths.

But this Saturday's opposition is formidable and perhaps the quote of 5/4 is a bit on the skinny side, considering the opposition: the six-time Group 1 winner Falbrav trained by Luca Cumani; Aidan O'Brien's Breeders' Cup Turf and dual Derby winner High Chaparral; Irish Oaks winner Vintage Tipple, trained by the 84-year-old Irish training legend Paddy Mullins; Godolphin's Dubai World Cup winner Moon Ballad; Islington, trained by Sir Michael Stoute, a triple winer at the highest level; and, possibly, the English 2000 Guineas hero, Refuse To Bend, another home-based runner of the highest class.

One for Hong Kong fans to watch closely is Falbrav, as connections of the formerly Italian-based winner of the Japan Cup have signalled their desire to aim for the Hong Kong Cup. Falbrav was the inaugural winner of the British Horseracing Board Middle Distance Championship (netting a bonus of Stg250,000) after wins in the Coral Eclipse Stakes and the Juddmonte International.