As mentioned earlier here in this space, the shape of the early dirt races on the Dubai World Cup card was going to be very interesting with the March 10 inside / speed bias still fresh in everyone's mind. So, those two races are over - I'm not totally certain what to think.

Yes, Heavy Metal led all the way in the Godolphin Mile, but Heavy Metal, if he got back to his best dirt form, was supposed to win this race. The only reason he paid as much as $9.80 was the presence of an American horse, Economic Model, who took too much action and was the 5/2 favorite. On the other hand, longshot Muntazah held second here after tracking the pace, and third-place Adirato wasn't far off the front, either. The time of 1:36.21 was fast but not unexpectedly so.

Race 2 was the Kahayla Classic over 2000 meters for purebred Arabians. The inside-pace setter was done 500 meters out and faded through the field as two-wide pace-preser Tallaab Al Khalediah made the front at the top of the stretch and held off outside-stalking Al Zahir. But while the early leader stopped, there was little movement throughout the final 300 meters. The race was run in course-record time, but then there are few Arabian races at the distance here, and I wonder how much it's saying that this was the fastest of them.

If I had to take a position, I'd guess there won't, in the end, be a bias like there was Super Saturday, just a dirt track that, like so many, rewards horses with pace. Stay tuned.