DUBAI, March 22: Dubai World Cup runner-up To The Victory has the strength to win the richest horse race on earth Saturday, his trainer warned.

“She might not be the best racehorse in the field, but she is the most powerful,” Yasuo Ikee said Friday.

“She enjoys the Dubai dirt surface more than any dirt track in Japan,” he added of the Nad Al Sheba circuit.

The six-year-old mare finished second in 2001 to Bob Baffert’s Captain Steve and Ikee is relishing a second crack at the six-million-dollar, 2,000-metre event. Ikee said she is in career-best condition and he is confident she can go one better this time out.

Fellow Japanese raider Agnes Digital reportedly had trainer Toshiaki smiling after a flying final gallop on Thursday proved the five-year-old had recovered from an arduous delayed flight to the Gulf emirate.

Agnes Digital has come back to full weight and recovered peak fitness and put in a last 200 metres over 12.8 seconds without the rider using the whip.

Dubai’s Godolphin outfit have readily admitted they see the Japanese duo, and Agnes Digital in particular, as the biggest threat to world-beating Sakhee.

Agnes Digital, with two group one victories among 11 wins, notably led Godolphin’s Tobougg by a head in the Hong Kong Cup in December.

Japan is also represented by eight-year-old mare Broad Appeal in the Golden Shaheen sprint over 1,200 metres and six-year-old Hot Secret in the 2,400-metre Sheema Classic on the turf. Both Group One events are worth two-million dollars each.

Runners and riders:

111-Agnes Digital (Hirofumi Shirai) 4

871-Best Of The Bests (J. Spencer) 3

111-Crimson Quest (Eibar Coa) 5

161-Keltos (Gerald Mosse) 9

323-Royal Tryst (Craig Williams) 1

121-Sakhee (Frankie Dettori) 7

223-Sei Mei (Jose Velez) 10

632-State Shinto (Ted Durcan) 2

221-Street Cry (Jerry Bailey) 6

172-Western Pride (P. Valenzuela) 11

1431-To The Victory (Olivier Peslier) 8

—Reuters