Ertijaal has been all but unbeatable running straight-course 1000-meter turf races at Meydan Racecourse in Dubai, and he won another such start Thursday, beating Blue Point by a head in the Group 2, $175,000 Meydan Sprint. Still, it would have been difficult to come away from Thursday’s race believing the winner is the top local hope for the Group 1, $1 million Al Quoz Sprint on the March 31 Dubai World Cup undercard. Ertijaal had a recency edge on Blue Point, while Blue Point was racing over the Meydan course for the first time while racing a distance short of his best. Ertijaal controlled the pace while Blue Point had to find a spot between horses, and for all that, Blue Point was gamely gaining through the final 100 yards, and it is he, just a 4-year-old, who seems to have all the upside going forward. Not to knock Ertijaal, a 7-year-old Oasis Dream gelding who is tough as nails, and was timed in 56.56 over good ground. “When another horse comes to him he’s very competitive and he sticks his neck out,” said Jim Crowley, who rode Ertijaal for Sheikh Hamdan, who bred the gelding, and trainer Ali Rashid al Rayhi. “He has won over six [furlongs], but we’ll have to wait and see what’s in the field,” Crowley said regarding a possible Al Quoz run. The card’s second Group 2, the $250,000 Zabeel Mile, went to Janoobi, a South African import trained by Mike de Kock. Janoobi finished 12th on Jan. 18 in his Dubai debut, but no worries. De Kock often lets his Dubai runners, especially the South Africans that have to go through a long, difficult ship and acclimatization period, race their way into shape. Janoobi returned Feb. 2 with a much stronger run, finishing second to Jungle Cat in a Group 2 over 1400 meters, and Thursday wore down pacesetting Championship to win the Zabeel Mile by three-quarters of a length. The de Kock-trained Noah From Goa couldn't finish with the top two but held third. It was a strong run for Championship, who won this race a year ago but had been eighth Feb. 1 in his only start since. De Kock doubts Janoobi, a 4-year-old Silvano colt who also carried Sheikh Hamdan’s colors, wants any part of 1800-meter racing, and because Meydan's next turf stakes in the division, the Jebel Hatta, is run over that trip, he suggested Janoobi could be switched to dirt for a race such as the 1600-meter Burj Nahaar. In the Group 3, $200,000 Dubai Millennium Stakes, Folkswood won a head bob over Leshlaa for a Godolphin one-two, though the margin almost certainly would have been greater had William Buick on Folkswood found room sooner. But as Leshlaa came down the outside with a clear homestretch run, Buick, who had placed Folkswood in a pocket just behind the leader most of the race, searched and searched for a seam. He finally found one, dropped down to the rail, and just got up before galloping out well clear in this 2000-meter turf tilt. “He was really brave, a real committed partner,” Buick said. “It was one of those situations I could kind of see happening from a long way out.” Charlie Appleby trains the winner, Saeed bin Suroor the runner-up, and the top two were well clear of third-place Earnshaw. Winning time over good ground was 2:02.33. Folkswood, a 5-year-old Exceed and Excel gelding, finished third in Winx’s Cox Plate last fall in Australia, and in the March 10 Jebel Hatta will try to go one place better than his second-place finish to Decorated Knight in the 2017 edition of that race.