DUBAI, United Arab Emirates – Their first two Breeders’ Cup winners last November at Del Mar. Nice! Four rich stakes winners last month on the Saudi Cup card. Amazing! But how to describe what the Japanese racehorses did on Saturday at Meydan Racecourse in Dubai? Skip the descriptors and just get to the details, might be the best approach.   After Bathrat Leon had won the Godolphin Mile, Stay Foolish the Dubai Gold Cup, and Crown Pride the UAE Derby, horses from Japan swept the two major Group 1 grass races on the Dubai World Cup card, Japanese Derby winner Shahryar home by a neck in the $6 million Sheema Classic one race after Panthalassa dead-heated with Lord North to capture the $5 million Dubai Turf.   One more jump and the Japan-based longshot Vin de Garde, finishing fastest, wins the three-horse Dubai Turf photo. And third behind Shahryar and fast-closing Yibir in the Sheema was pacesetting Authority, still another Japan-based runner.   Okay, try this one: The Japanese on Saturday night at Meydan turned Dubai into the Land of the Rising Stunner.   :: Want to start playing with a $510 bankroll and have access to free Formulator? Learn more Eight Thoroughbred stakes on the card, five Japanese winners, and third in the $12 million World Cup with Chuwa Wizard. It boggles the mind.  Shahryar, ridden beautifully by Cristian Demuro, was a most worthy winner of the Sheema Classic, contested at 2,400 meters, about 1 1/2 miles. Racing over this same distance, Shahryar had beaten Efforia, one of Japan’s best-regarded horses, winning the Tokyo Yushun, Japan’s Derby, by a nose last May 30. Carefully managed through the rest of his 3-year-old season by trainer Hideaki Fujiwara, Shahryar didn’t show his best going over soft ground in his first post-Derby start last September, but ran a better race Nov. 28 facing older horses for the first time in the Japan Cup. Moderately squeezed between rivals during the stretch run in that race, his first against older rivals, Shahryar finished a very encouraging third, a performance that gave him the foundation to produce a career best in the Sheema.  Demuro helped with that, too. Placing Shahryar along the fence just behind pacesetting Authority, Demuro had to wait for longshot pace-presser For the Top to fade off the scene before he had room to operate after turning into the long Meydan homestretch. A path to daylight cleared, Demuro steered out, attacked Authority, and those two dashed off for the finish.  Yibir, at the time, barely had gotten started. Placed at the back of a line of horses going about three paths wide around the far turn, jockey William Buick wheeled Yibir very wide coming into the stretch and the Breeders’ Cup Turf winner responded with a strong finish. Strong, but too late. Demuro had gotten timing just right, putting away Authority and hitting the wire before Yibir could collar him. Yibir, making his first start at age 4 following a post-Breeders’ Cup break, will be just fine, and Authority turned in another excellent race.   Winning time of 2:26.88 over a good course was the second fastest Sheema recorded at Meydan. Shahryar, a son of Deep Impact out of Dubai Majesty, by Essence of Dubai, paid $16.20 on the international tote. Bred by Northern Farm, he’s owned by Sunday Racing. Pyledriver, who didn’t have much of a trip, ran well to finish fourth, finishing a nose ahead of yet another Japanese horse, Uberleben. Japanese racing folks long have coveted a Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe, and that figures to be the year-end goal for Shahryar.  “It would be a dream for me to take this horse to the Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe,” Fujiwara said. “It is the race we want to win, and it would mean so much to be able to take him there. That is our ambition and our aim.”  Had the Dubai Turf been 1,810 meters, not 1,800, Vin de Garde gets up for a clean win. As it was, he had to settled for third, beaten a whisker by the two winners, Panthalassa and Lord North.   Lord North had been a five-length winner of the 2021 Dubai Turf but this looked on paper like a tougher race and likely was. Panthalassa set quickly off for the early lead and controlled the pace most of way. Lord North came with a long, sustained bid under Frankie Dettori, and ran extremely well, making just his second start in the last year.   Vin de Garde, 12th in the Breeders’ Cup Mile, ran the race of his life, somehow just missing the win despite being deeply embedded in a mass of rivals at the 200-meter mark. Swung wide, Vin de Garde came with an explosive kick that fell just short.   Lord North, a 6-year-old gelding trained by John and Thady Gosden, is by Dubawi out of Najoum, by Giant’s Causeway, and is owned by Zayed bin Mohammed Racing. Five-year-old Panthalassa is by Lord Kanaloa out of Miss Pemberley, by Montjeu. He is trained by Yoshito Yahagi, who won two other races earlier on the card with Stay Foolish in the Gold Cup and Bathrat Leon in the Godolphin Mile. The Dubai Turf was run in another quick time, 1:45.77, faster than the race standard.  Schnell Meister, the favorite, churned in place once he was taken outside for a stretch run, finishing seventh. American horse Colonel Liam pressed the pace and faded to ninth.