AIDAN O’Brien has saddled the winners of 313 Group or Grade 1 races around the world. They cover nine different countries, but just one of these was recorded in the UAE. In 2013 St Nicholas Abbey won the Dubai Sheema Classic, and today the Ballydoyle maestro will attempt to repeat the feat with Magic Wand and Hunting Horn.

Six years ago Aidan also came away with success in the Group 2 UAE Derby. That was with Lines Of Battle and he saddles Van Beethoven today. Lost Treasure and I Can Fly complete the raiding party from Ballydoyle, though Tipperary has a sixth challenger with David Marnane’s Tato Key in the Group 1 Golden Shaheen, carrying a winner’s prize of almost £1.2 million.

Tato Key might be the only Irish-trained runner in the race, but he faces a formidable challenge from the Doug Watson-trained Drafted. This son of Field Commission would raise plenty of cheer in Ireland were he to win, being owned in partnership with others by brothers Brian and Damien Gleeson. A bargain Racing In Dubai Sale three-year-old purchase for AED40,000 (about €9,500) by Brian, Drafted has had an interesting career to date.

He is a son of the Canadian champion sprinter Field Commission who stands for just $2,500 in Florida, having gone to stud as an eight-year-old. He earned over $1 million from eight wins and is one of just a pair of graded stakes winners for his own sire Service Stripe. From the first crop of Field Commission, Drafted is the only stakes winner and one of just two stakes performers by him.

On the dam side, Drafted is the only stakes horse in his first three generations. His fourth dam Skyway bred Group 1 Prix Robert Papin winner Maelstrom Lake, and is grandam of Group 1 Moyglare Stud Stakes winner Flutter Away.

This explains why Drafted was unsold at $19,000 as a yearling, but he was bought by Irishman Eoin Harty as a breezer and set a track record on his debut over four and a half furlongs on dirt as a two-year-old at Keeneland. He sold to Godolphin and was sent to Royal Ascot where he was down the field in the Windsor Castle Stakes, and then finished last on his only other start back in the USA. He was gelded at three and sold.

Now winner of six of his nine starts, including two Group 3s and a listed race, he has already won more than £400,000 for the Gleesons and partners. Could the dream go into orbit today?