This was the 20th renewal of the Dubai World Cup and with the huge crowd cheering and throwing their programs in the air, William Buick steered the Saeed Bin Suroor trained Prince Bishop to victory, blowing a kiss to the crowd as he crossed the line. Prince Bishop was Godolphin’s eighth World Cup winner and the seventh trained by Bin Suroor.

The UAE was also successful in the first two races on the card, with owner Sheikh Hamdan Bin Rashid Al Maktoum recording a memorable double. The Erwan Charpy trained Manark (FR) and Dane O’Neil got the ball rolling with an upset victory by 2.25 lengths in the Dubai Kahayla Classic, breaking the track record in the process.

Then it was the turn of Tamarkuz (USA) and Paul Hanagan, who prevailed in a nail-biting finish over Sloane Avenue (USA) and Frankie Dettori in the Godolphin Mile. Trained by newly crowned UAE Champion Trainer, Musabah Al Muairi, Tamarkuz fluffed the start, but Hanagan kept his cool, getting the gelding’s head in front on the line.

South Africa also recorded a sterling victory on the night, when the Mike de Kock trained Mubtaahij (IRE) turned the UAE Derby into a training gallop. All it took was a flick of Christophe Soumillon’s wrists to send Sheik Mohammed Bin Khalifa Al Maktoum’s Mubtaahij past the two leading Japanese runners and on his way to an eight-length victory under a hands-and-heels ride.

Meydan was also the host of the second leg of the Global Sprint Challenge, the Group 1 Dubai Golden Shaheen Sponsored By Gulf News (1200m) on dirt.

The Bob Baffert trained Secret Circle (USA) under Victor Espinoza made it a victory for the USA by narrowly holding off the Tony Millard trained Super Jockey (NZ) with last year's Longines World’s Best Jockey Ryan Moore in the saddle.

Another Hong Kong trained runner, Rich Tapestry (IRE) who was second in the race last year, was third for trainer Michael Chang and jockey Oliver Doleuze.

With the third leg of the Global Sprint Challenge, the Group 1 Takamatsunomiya Kinen (1200m) at Chukyo, won by Hong Kong's Aerovelocity (NZ) the focus shifts to the fourth leg at Kranji, the Group 1 KrisFlyer International Sprint (1200m) on Sunday, May 17th, before the series moves to England for the first of three races with the Group 1 King's Stand Stakes (1000m) on June 16th at Royal Ascot.

A US$1 million bonus is available during the 2015 Global Sprint Challenge if a horse is able to win a minimum of three races across three different countries.

Runners from Europe and the USA, returned victorious in the remaining Dubai World Cup races, confirming the status of the meeting as a truly cosmopolitan event.