Arrogate connections target second Breeders' Cup after remarkable Dubai World Cup win

Arrogate has come out of what appeared to be gruelling effort to win Saturday’s night’s Dubai World Cup from an impossible position like he has all his other races – as if he has not won.

Khaled Abdullah’s grey colt, now the biggest prize-money earner in racing history after taking the total to £13.4m, was compared with Secretariat by his trainer after being left in the gates and having to pass all 13 rivals and make up 15 lengths. 

He will fly back to California on Wednesday with connections planning to target a second Breeders’ Cup Classic, at Del Mar on November 4, and tailor his programme accordingly. In the meantime he will have a break and it is thought unlikely that he will be out again before August.

An impressed Phil Smith, the British handicapper, said that it would be hard to put up his rating of 134 on the bare figures of Saturday night’s win.

But as to what he could be rated he said: “Think of a number and double it. Forget the figures, though, over-coming adversity is what makes horses great and he was up against some hardened dirt horses; Frankel did it in the Guineas when he went off so fast and in the Champion Stakes when he fell out the stalls and had to race on soft ground.”