Reverting to dirt and tearing up the synthetic Tapeta surface at Meydan has been well received on the whole and local trainers such as Doug Watson, who has always trained on dirt, have thrived.

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The main reason for the switch last year appeared to be that, with no other racing jurisdiction staging major races on a synthetic surface, Dubai was in danger of becoming isolated in doing so.

As with any new track and/or surface, it takes time to settle or ‘bed-in’ and that certainly appears to have been the case here with slow times at the early meetings being bettered consistently since.

That could also be partly explained by the higher quality action enjoyed throughout the Dubai World Cup Carnival but certain trends have certainly emerged.

Those racing prominently have seemed to enjoy a massive advantage on the new Meydan dirt surface with numerous winners getting to the front and rail to make all.

Stalking the pace has proved the most successful alternative with those held up seemingly increasingly disadvantaged. In fact, since the first race on the dirt in early November, very few winners have been able to come from off the pace – the sadly now injured Faulkner was one notable exceptions, with Super Saturday victor Shaishee the only other notable one who springs to mind.

A low draw has also proved highly beneficial with, for instance, only three winners in 21 races over the 1600m dirt course and distance of today’s Godolphin Mile, having exited a stall higher than seven.

Previous experience of the surface has also proved advantageous with several ‘domestic season’ runners wining on the dirt and progressing through to the Carnival.

African Story was all at sea on his dirt debut but, with the experience under his belt, bounced back to win the third round of the Al Maktoum Challenge.

Turf horses have struggled, as have many with form on similar surfaces in America, so look for horses with Meydan dirt form, drawn low and likely to race prominently.