DUBAI, United Arab Emirates – The Japanese long have coveted an elusive win in the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe. For now, they seem intent on winning another Group 1, 1 1/2-mile turf race, one in which they have multiple successes, the $6 million Sheema Classic, the supporting feature on the Dubai World Cup card Saturday at Meydan Racecourse. The great mare Gentildonna, home by 1 1/2 lengths in 2014, was the last of three previous Japan-based Sheema winners. The 15-runner field includes five horses from Japan. Three of them are Group 1 winners and a fourth, Authority, clearly is a Group 1-level horse. So strong is the Japanese contingent that Yibir, last year’s Breeders’ Cup Turf winner and Eclipse champion, could run to form Saturday and miss a top-three finish. :: Serious horseplayers use serious products. Get DRF's premium past performances, now free for the first time Shahryar, a 4-year-old colt, won the Tokyo Yushun, the Japanese Derby, last May 31. Four-year-old filly Uberleben won the Yushun Himba, the Japanese Oaks, eight days before the Derby. Glory Vase is a two-time winner of the Group 1 Hong Kong Vase. Authority exits a dominant victory in the rich Neom Turf Cup in Saudi Arabia and in his previous start finished second of 18, beaten only by mighty Contrail in the Japan Cup. Stella Veloce has strong form in his own right but appears to prefer softer going than he’ll find at Meydan, where the course will be good to firm, and he likely wants more distance than this 2,400-meter trip, one lap around this spacious course. Five-year-old Authority is by Orfevre, who was on the way to winning the 2012 Arc when he put his feet in the ground and allowed Solemia to snatch away victory. Orfevre is by Stay Gold, who won the Sheema Classic in 2001, and Authority has every right to emulate his grandfather. Authority failed to show his best in his first three tries at the Group 1 level, but his Japan Cup performance on Nov. 28 showed he can win a race like the Sheema. Contrail, retired after the race, ran down Authority in the final half-furlong of the 1 1/2-mile Japan Cup, but was Japan’s best middle-distance horse at the time. Japan’s top jockey, Christophe Lemaire, has the mount on Authority, who Lemaire put on the lead last month in Saudi Arabia as Authority went wire to wire in the 11-furlong Neom Turf Cup. Shahryar beat top-class Efforia in the 1 1/2-mile Japanese Derby, didn’t care for soft ground in his first race after that win, and finished third while getting five pounds from the top two in the Japan Cup. Contrail, rallying wide, and Authority, drifting slightly to his right, came together in the final furlong and squeezed Shahryar, who might have challenged for second with a cleaner trip. Raced only six times entering his 4-year-old season, Shahryar comes to the Sheema with more upside than Authority. :: Want the best bonus in racing? Get a $250 deposit match, $10 free bet, and free Formulator with DRF Bets. Code: WINNING Glory Vase has the feel of a Hong Kong specialist, his pair of Vase victories perhaps the top performances in his career. Uberleben won the 1 1/2-mile Oaks well enough but has returned to struggle in three subsequent starts. She could, however, have improvement in her at a price Saturday. As for Yibir, Godolphin and trainer Charlie Appleby kept him in England following his BC Turf victory, only shipping Yibir to Dubai a couple weeks ago. “He traveled in great form and . . . adapted well. He worked nicely here and has done well,” Appleby said. “He was a big brute at 3 and he’s come forward.” Yibir’s career turned around last summer when he was gelded, but the field he beat in the BC Turf lacked the strength and depth of this one. English trainer William Haggas sent two for the Sheema, but Dubai Honour likely needs more cut in the ground to show his best. Alenquer has at least a minor chance, having beaten Yibir and subsequent English Derby winner Adayar in an early-season contest last spring. Alenquer defeated Dubai Turf hope Lord North in the Winter Derby, an all-weather prep for the Sheema Classic, and Haggas believes he has the potential to become a legitimate Group 1 horse. Whether that happens Saturday or later in the year is a different question. Dubai Turf Lord North won the 2021 Dubai Turf by three lengths, and that was no fluke. Trained by John and Thady Gosden, Lord North, now 6, prefers racing left-handed on a flat track, the way races are run here at Meydan. He’s run well at York Racecourse in England, which fits the profile, and over a 1 1/2-mile distance longer than his best, he finished a close fourth in Tarnawa’s 2020 Breeders’ Cup Turf victory at Keeneland. Lord North didn’t race following his win in the nine-furlong Dubai Turf until Feb. 22, when he was second to Alenquer – who runs Saturday in the Sheema Classic – in the Winter Derby, a 10-furlong race over the all-weather track at Lingfield in England. “He was a little rusty,” Thady Gosden said earlier this week. “He’ll improve for the run.” Indeed, Lord North made a favorable impression in a Thursday morning turf blowout over the Meydan grass course. There’s much in his favor, yet he still is unlikely to emerge a repeat winner in the $5 million Dubai Turf because Schnell Meister is among Lord North’s 14 rivals. Four-year-old Schnell Meister’s 7-4-2-1 record has come against top-class competition in Japan. He won the Group 1 NHK Mile Championship last May and in his most recent start, Nov. 21 in the Group 1 Mile Championship, finished second behind Gran Alegria, who retired last year as Japan’s leading miler. While Gran Alegria got a clean outside run in the Mile Championship, Schnell Meister found himself short of room while racing inside and in traffic. Moreover, those one-mile races fell short of Schnell Meister’s best trip. “The extra [furlong] will be an advantage,” Lemaire said. “He sometimes gets a little bit tapped for toe over a mile. At that trip, he either wins by a nose or loses by a nose; you have to time it just right.” Colonel Liam, an American horse, is 3 for 3 at 1 1/8 miles, winning the Grade 1 Pegasus World Cup Turf on Jan. 29 and finishing in a dead heat with Domestic Spending last May in the Old Forester Turf Classic. Extravagant Kid a year ago became the first American-based winner of a World Cup card turf race when he captured the Al Quoz Sprint. “He’s a top-class turf horse for sure,” trainer Todd Pletcher said. “He’s a big, strong horse, a stalk-and-pounce type.”