DUBAI, United Arab Emirates – Lord North resides in England, housed at the Clarehaven Stables of trainer John Gosden. But his true domain is the Meydan turf course. After winning the $5 million Dubai Turf in 2021 and dead-heating for first in the race last year, Lord North notched a third win on Saturday, beating onrushing Danon Beluga by three quarters of a length in this Group 1 race over 1,800 meters.   Seven-year-old Lord North is a gelding. The way he’s going, it’s not crazy to think he could return for still another Dubai Turf.   But for his jockey, Frankie Dettori, the Dubai Turf marked one final opportunity to deploy his famed flying dismount in Dubai, where he used to ride every winter while retained by Godolphin.   Dettori won the Dubai World Cup four times, his first in 2000 aboard Dubai Millennium. His mount in the big race this year, Country Grammer, finished sixth, but Dettori, who plans to retire late in 2023, got one final taste of Dubai glory.   :: Bet the races on DRF Bets! Sign up with code WINNING to get a $250 Deposit Match, $10 Free Bet, and FREE DRF Formulator.  “To just get one on the board at this beautiful place, in Dubai that has been my home for so many winters, it's pretty special,” Dettori said.  Lord North, also special, now has gotten three on the board, all with Dettori. A serious throat abscess derailed Lord North’s career two years ago, then recurred last summer and compromised him again. But co-trainers John and Thady Gosden found a way to get the old boy going the right direction, and connections said after Saturday’s win that Lord North had come into his 7-year-old Dubai Turf in better form than the one at age 6.  Prepping with a sharp win in the Winter Derby over the all-weather surface at Lingfield, the same race he used as a steppingstone to his dead heat with Panthalassa last year, Lord North traveled sweetly from the start of the Dubai Turf, contested around one turn. Racing a couple paths off the fence and among horses from fifth and sixth down the backstretch, Lord North and Dettori swung into serious contention going past the three-furlong marker and coming into the homestretch. Going wide, Dettori got very busy on his mount, opening a big lead – a good thing, because Danon Beluga came hard for second in the end.   With Do Deuce, the 2022 Japanese Derby winner, scratched lame from this race Friday, Serifos and Danon Beluga carried the main hope among Japan-based runners in the Dubai Turf. Serifos got a decent trip but ran out of gas a furlong from the finish, eventually checking in fifth; Danon got a tough trip and just was getting warmed up a furlong from the finish, closing fastest to miss by three-quarters of a length. Stuck nearly last in upper stretch, Danon Beluga was forced wide, losing momentum, before launching his rally.   Nations Pride, who is bound for American racing this summer, contested the pace outside El Drama in the early and middle stages and stayed on solidly for third. And Shirl’s Speight, who came here from Florida for his Canadian owner and trainer, Charles Fipke and Roger Attfield, turned in a plucky performance to get fourth, just a nose behind Nations Pride.  Bred by Godolphin, Lord North ($11.60) is by Dubawi out of Najoum, by Giant’s Causeway, and is owned by Sheikh Zayed bin Mohammed Racing. He has run well in Europe, winning the Group 1 Prince of Wales Stakes in 2020 and finishing fourth in the Breeders’ Cup Turf later that year. Why does he own the Dubai Turf? Pretty simple, according to John Gosden: The race’s distance, about 1 1/8 miles, is ideal, and Lord North loves a flat track like Meydan’s.   With just one race during 2021, Lord North has started only 20 times, winning half his races. And from all appearances Saturday, there may be more to come.  :: Want to learn more about handicapping and wagering? Check out DRF's Handicapping 101 and Wagering 101 pages.