Dubai: In an unprecedented change to the running order of Dubai World Cup Night the race meeting will start with a leap straight into the Group 2 Godolphin Mile on the dirt surface.

This move around will bring about more attention on the very important Kahayla Classic, a Group 1 Arabian race, which now runs as the second on the card. It is great to highlight the Arabians, which are after all the heritage of this country and its people.

But back to the thoroughbreds for this writer and the very exiting Godolphin Mile. Although there are currently 13 horses declared for this event I feel the result will lay between four runners. The Japanese, who have a strong contingent here in Dubai this year, have an interesting entry in Kafuji Take, a five-year-old trained by Sachio Yukubo who did not run until July last year.

He ran well without winning on his first three attempts and was then put into Grade 3 in which he duly got his head in front at the line. His next start was in Grade 1 just a month ago and he was only beaten 1 length into third by Gold Dream, who is now running later on the card in the World Cup. Having only ran five times he is unexposed and could be the dark horse, plus we know he operates on the dirt. He will be ridden by Yuichi Fukunaga.

Dubai’s champion Trainer Doug Watson runs North America, who has improved dramatically since moving to the dirt track at Meydan. He ran six times in England without winning though he came close but soon got a handle on things here after being switched to Satish Seemar from Charlie Appleby and winning at the first attempt in a maiden at Meydan in November last year.

He has progressed rapidly since taking the Group 3 Firebreak Stakes by eight lengths in February, which brought his rating up as high as 113. Richard Mullen has been highly exited about riding this horse and he feels a Group 2 is within his capabilities. Being the UAE Champion jockey we must fully respect his opinion. He says “the progression he has made in a short space of time, he went from winning a maiden to a local handicap then he had to dig deep to beat Heavy Metal and I think that was his crowning moment, then he won a Group 3 in dominant style”.

Heavy Metal, trained by Salem Bin Ghadayer, has found a rich vein of form at the perfect time and will no doubt get a confident ride from Mickael Barzalona.

My pick for the honours is the Jorge Navarro-trained Sharp Azteca. Navarro brought X Y Jet here last year and he went within a neck of taking the Golden Shaheen, so I reckon the guy knows to bring the right sort of athlete here. And some athlete Sharp Azteca is, a strapping ball of hardened muscle with a handsome head, who closely scrutinises all that goes on around him.

He was only just touched off by Mind Your Biscuits — favoured for the Golden Shaheen — in December at Santa Anita and returned to win a Grade 2 handicap at Gulfstream in February by four lengths in a remarkable time of 1.34 and change! That was almost six weeks ago so he has had ample time to recover and be ready for the biggest test of his life.