Last Saturday at Meydan Racecourse in Dubai, Kentucky-bred Animal Kingdom, winner of the 2011 Kentucky Derby, ended three years of United States futility in the world’s richest horse race.

Inaugurated in 1996, the Dubai World Cup had been won 9 times in 14 years by horses based in the United States, all when the race was run on the dirt track at Nad Al Sheba Racecourse. In 2010, the race moved to the newly opened Meydan Racecourse and its synthetic Tapeta racing surface, which has not been kind to U.S.-based dirt runners.

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