Racing: Ballad gives Dettori big Dubai finale

Sheikh Mohammed's élite Godolphin team threw down the gauntlet for the forthcoming European and global Flat season to all-comers with the emergence of two dazzling new stars at Nad Al Sheba last night.

Moon Ballad took the eighth running of the £2.25 million Dubai World Cup by five lengths, simply running away from his 10 rivals on his second venture on dirt, but no less impressive was Sulamani's extraordinary blitz from last to first in the meeting's premier turf contest, the Sheema Classic. Both horses were ridden, in diametrically contrasting fashion, by Frankie Dettori.

Moon Ballad, a four-year-old son of the second World Cup winner, Singspiel, was good, but not the best, last year: winner of the Dante Stakes, third in the Derby, second in the Champion Stakes. But a winter in the sun at Mohammed's Al Quoz stables has done wonders and the chestnut, despite sweating up badly in the humid desert air, was in a class of his own in the world's richest race. From his wide draw ­ 11 of the 11 ­ he was briefly taken on for early supremacy by Blue Burner, but after a furlong he was clear, with Dettori upping the tempo with every stride, and never in danger.

The best of the Americans, Harlan's Holiday, came out of the pack to claim second, and a length adrift the favourite, Nayef, won his own private battle with the Godolphin second string, Grandera, for third. It was a fifth hometown win for the Maktoum family in their emirate's flagship sporting event, after Singspiel, Almutawakel, Dubai Millennium and, last year, Street Cry, and a second for Dettori, who rode Dubai Millennium three years ago.

He compared Moon Ballad's style of victory, though not the horse himself, with that of ill-fated great champion. "When I turned for home I had the same feeling that I'd had on Dubai Millennium," he said. "I couldn't hear the other horses, all I could hear was the crowd cheering. I knew I'd won and I was able to enjoy the last two furlongs."

Moon Ballad cost 350,000 guineas as a yearling; Sulamani, the highest-profile of the horses head-hunted by Godolphin during the close season, presumably rather more. He produced the performance of the night to win the Sheema Classic. The four-year-old son of Hernando, winner of the French Derby, had been patently unlucky when beaten by the Blues' Marienbard in the Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe last year and Sheikh Mohammed lost no time in recruiting him from the Niarchos family.

At Longchamp, Sulamani just failed after being ridden from a long way off the pace and for most of last night's 12-furlong contest it was shaping as a nightmare reprise as Dettori and his partner languished at the back of the 16-strong field.

But no sooner had French challenger Ange Gabriel, winner of last season's Hong Kong Vase, burst to the front in the straight than Sulamani, with top gear fully engaged, came swooping to conquer. The bay caught his rival only inside the last 100 yards but the winning margin was two lengths, going away. Nayef's Marcus Tregoning stablemate Ekraar stayed on for third.

"He was scratchy early on and I wasn't happy," said Dettori, with excitement in his voice. "Turning in, I still thought we had no chance of pegging them back, but he quickened three times in the home straight. He was awesome, simply took my breath away. I have never felt anything like it from a mile-and-a-half horse."

A new player on the world stage was introduced when South Africa claimed the first victories for the Southern Hemisphere at the £9.7 million fixture, courtesy of Ipi Tombe in the Duty Free and Victory Moon in the UAE Derby, both trained by Mike de Kock.

Ipi Tombe, a four-year-old filly, won her seventh successive race with a devastating burst, quickening on jockey Kevin Shea's demand going to the final furlong to leave the German six-year-old Paolini, a sound international yardstick, bobbing three lengths in her wake.

She will now leave de Kock's care to join Elliot Walden in North America, where her principal target will be the Arlington Million.

The UAE brand of the Blue Riband, over 10 furlongs on dirt, is a shakedown for the Godolphin squad being primed for the Kentucky Derby. This year's Churchill Downs dreams are on hold after hotshot Inamorato suffered a troubled run and could manage only third behind Victory Moon, with stablemate Songlark a neck second.

In the meeting's opener, the Godolphin Mile, Dettori and his team made a winning start with Firebreak, who held a late thrust from last year's winner, Grey Memo, and there was a rare win for a non-Godolphin local yard when State City, handled by Paddy Rudkin and ridden by Michael Hills, caught Avanzado close home in the six-furlong dash, the Golden Shaheen.