THE success or failure of the Pegasus World Cup Invitational depends on attracting two or three of the world’s best dirt horses – who are possibly stopping in on their way to the breeding shed – and that those horses give their running.

It worked, after a fashion, in its first two editions – with Arrogate and Gun Runner top-class in victory – if rather less so this year, the race taking place at Gulfstream Park in Florida last weekend.

City Of Light is another classy winner, but his near-six-length margin owed plenty to the weakness of his opposition and the under-performance of the favourite Accelerate in third.

Nonetheless, City Of Light gets a 126 figure from me, to go along with the same when he won the Breeders’ Cup Dirt Mile at Churchill Downs in November. Direct European interest was non-existent in both those events.

It was present in the newly-inaugurated Pegasus World Cup Turf Invitational earlier on the card, however, with the Aidan O’Brien-trained Magic Wand performing respectably in second behind 123-rated Bricks And Mortar despite the rain-softened ground possibly going against her.

Irish interests were also represented with distinction at Meydan a couple of days before, when Darren Bunyan’s Hit The Bid ran second in a valuable 1000-metre handicap, returning a 115 timefigure behind lightly-weighted Mazzini (104).

On the same card, the Saeed bin Suroor-trained Dream Castle made it two wins out of two at the Carnival with an impressive 119-timefigure effort in a 1800-metre Group 2.

Meanwhile, Manguzi paid quite a compliment to Walking Thunder (who had beaten him hands down a fortnight earlier) with a 106-timefigure success of his own.