Dream of a £1 million Cup bonanza

American-trained racehorse Cigar holds the world record for the most prize money won.

His fame spread across continents - in 1996 he added victory in the inaugural Dubai World Cup to his 1995 Breeders' Cup Classic success in New York. Although other horses enjoyed longer unbeaten runs on less competitive circuits or in the pre-war period, his record of 16 straight, top-class wins compares only with compatriot Citation in the late 1940s and Italy's Ribot the following decade.

But we could never have hoped to see Cigar over here. Why? Because he was a mean machine on dirt, but an old banger on turf.

Britain is the founding father of horseracing, but in this key element we are lagging behind on the international circuit. London City could change all that.

In the UK, dirt or 'all-weather' racing is strictly for dogs. Only low-class horses race at Wolverhampton, Lingfield Park and Southwell. Absurdly, if a horse shows a real talent for the surface he will be too highly rated by the official handicapper to qualify for races staged by these three tracks.

His owner then has two choices. If he or she can afford it, like Running Stag's owner Richard Cohen, the horse remains trained in Britain but travels the world to plunder valuable dirt track prizes. Or, like Blakeset last month, the horse is sold to America where opportunity and prize money mirror talent.

Britain is packed with horses of modest ability whose dirt form far outstrips their turf form. It doesn't take a great leap of logic to think that hidden among our better turf horses are some of outstanding but untapped dirt ability.

"It's madness that Giant's Causeway could only have a racecourse gallop at Southwell to prepare him for last November's Breeders' Cup Classic," said leading trainer John Gosden. "He went over there with zero dirt-racing experience and ran a blinder to finish a narrow second to Tiznow."