DUBAI, United Arab Emirates – Cross Counter passed 16 horses during the last three-sixteenths of a mile to win the Group 1 Melbourne Cup in his final start as a 3-year-old. In his first start at 4 he had only one horse to catch, and he got that done, too.

Cross Counter’s stable-mate, Ispolini, got a dream run off the far turn and into the stretch, slipping through along the fence while full of run and seizing the lead in the two-mile Gold Cup. But Cross Counter quickly countered. No need here for his Melbourne theatrics, Cross Counter merely asserted his superiority, drawing back on terms and pulling away from Ispolini to win the Group 2, $1 million Dubai Gold Cup by 1 ¼ lengths.

Favored Cross Counter stopped the timer in 3:19 racing over good turf as the pair of Godolphin-owned, Charlie Appleby trained horses buried the rest of the field. Third-place Call the Wind finished three lengths back in third, while American shipper Platinum Warrior never got involved and finished sixth.

Melbourne Cup winners rarely show up the next spring in Dubai, but then Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid al Maktoum has never had one before Cross Counter.

“We just thought it would be nice for everybody here to see a Melbourne Cup winner,” Appleby said, adding that “we were confident at home” despite Cross Counter racing for the first time since Nov. 6.

Indeed, Cross Counter showed his freshness and was slow to settle under William Buick, calming down to some extent when Buick found cover before hitting the first turn following a long straightaway run to begin the marathon, but never fully relaxing. It didn’t matter. Buick gave Cross Counter a lovely ride in behind pace-setter Red Galileo and tracking Prince of Arran, and while Bret Doyle could not have done any more on Ispolini, it was Buick sitting on the superior mount.

Cross Counter, just a 4-year-old, is a homebred by Teofilo out of the Kingmambo mare, Waitress. He showed plenty of ability last year in Europe, finishing second to stable-mate Old Persian in the 1 ½-mile Great Voltigeur Stakes, but clearly has taken his game to a higher level in his two staying races. Whether he can be as successful against the best long-distance horses in Europe, Stradivarius especially, remains to be seen, but Call the Wind did win a Group 1 last year in France and Cross Counter has nothing that can beat him over two miles in this part of the world, at least.