As tension builds for the world's richest race meeting in Dubai, MIKE DILLON looks closely at New Zealand champion Sunline, her opposition and players in the Dubai World Cup.
The Sunline camp is refusing to be intimidated by the suggestion the opposition will team ride to beat her in the $US2 million Dubai Duty Free.
Co-trainer Stephen McKee does not believe the mare is vulnerable because she is an on-speed runner.
That type of horse can be suspect if a rival is sacrificed to make them work hard in the early and middle stages.
McKee says the Sunline camp has several strategies to cope with any pressure situation.
"If something wants to go crazy, Greg Childs will be instructed to let them go," said McKee in Dubai last night.
"We've always believed Sunline kicks better from a trail than when she leads."
Sunline is best when dictating, rather than being dictated to, but even from the trail she can manage that this time, by applying the pressure from the 800m.
The champion New Zealand mare wins her races not with the usual electrifying sprint of top horses, but with a gradual and relentless increase in speed from as far out as 800m, which takes the sprint out of the opposition.
By the time they get to Sunline the opposition has generally run their race. Getting past is the problem.
Despite having to travel further than any of the horses from 16 countries racing on the world's richest raceday, Sunline is in the best shape of her career, says Trevor McKee.
"We won't be using any excuses," he said.
Regular trackwork rider and strapper Claire Bird feels Sunline galloped better on Thursday morning than she did before winning the Cox Plate in October and the Hong Kong Mile in December.
If world champion jockey Frankie Dettori is right and the Godolphin pair of Slickly and Sobieski cannot beat Sunline, it is probably up to arch international rivals Jim And Tonic and Fairy King Prawn to test Sunline.
Jim And Tonic's French trainer Francois Doumen is happy with the rugged stayer, but says he would have loved to have given the horse one more gallop in the Dubai heat.
Trainer Ivan Allan is insisting Fairy King Prawn, who pushed Sunline so close in Hong Kong, is over the serious dehydration he suffered on the flight from Hong Kong.
The English contingent is keen on Arkadian Hero. Ladbroke's odds-setter Mike Dillon is regarded as the shrewdest in his business and at 10-1 he has Arkadian Hero considerably shorter than any other betting shop.
At his last start, Arkadian Hero finished 14th in the Breeders Cup Mile, but at his previous outing he was beaten a nose in the group one Atto Mile after losing seven lengths at the start when he stumbled out of the barriers.
He was an easy group three winner before that.
Sunline is in the right shape to do this job, but it will not be easy.
Racing: Sunline's moment of truth is at hand
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