There is no doubt that the attentions of the racing world were focused on one horse this weekend, and he did not disappoint. Described by Bob Baffert as the ‘greatest horse since Secretariat’, Arrogate was nothing short of sublime in his victory in the Dubai World Cup.

After falling out the gate and trailing the field on the rain soaked Meydan track in Dubai, Arrogate put in the most impressive of displays under a cool ride by Mike Smith. He guided the four-year-old past his 13 rivals, one by one around the outside, and stretched clear in the home straight. In under a year, Arrogate has gone from an unraced three year old, to a four time Grade 1, and US $17 million dollar, winning horse.

Dubai World Cup Day proved to be a truly international affair, with American, French, British, Irish and Japanese horses all notching up Group success on the US $30 million card. The weekend’s Group racing wasn’t confined only to Meydan though, with Turffontein, Chukyo and Kranji also hosting high profile fixtures.

Internationally renowned trainer Mike De Kock had two runners on the dirt of Meydan, and whilst neither could earn a place, back in his native South Africa he was successful in the Oaks Trial with Belle Rose. Domestic success dominated the Turffontein card, where five top class races were staged. Three of those five races went the way of jockey Gavin Lerena, who himself is building an international reputation, enhanced by his International Jockeys Championships success representing South Africa at Sha Tin in December 2015.

Domestic prominence was also evident in the Grade 1 Takamatsunomiya Kinen at Chukyo Racecourse in Japan, where international rider Mirco Demuro was beaten into third on favourite Red Falx by Let’s Go Donki (Yasunari Iwata) and winner Seiun Kosei (Hideaki Miyuki). Fellow European rider, Andrasch Starke, could only manage a 12th place finish in the race. Mirco has made Japan a second home, since becoming the first non-Japanese jockey to win the Japan Derby in 2003, he’s not been short of success in Japan and that looks set to continue through 2017. Mirco claimed the first Japanese Grade 1 of the season, and his 19th Japanese Grade 1 success, winning the February Stakes aboard Dubai World Cup runner Gold Dream.

Elsewhere on Sunday, Singapore was the venue for two Group 3 races; Singapore Three-Year-Old Sprint and Rocket Man Sprint. The latter has been renamed in 2017 to honour the first Singapore-trained horse to have claimed an international Group 1 race. It’s perhaps fitting that Rocket Man has been honoured with this race that took place on the same weekend as the renewal of his Group 1 conquest, the Dubai Golden Shaheen. This year’s winner, Lim’s Cruiser, is now 2 from 2 in Group races and hasn’t finished out of the places in his six starts.