DUBAI, United Arab Emirates – Each morning this week as dawn creeps into Dubai darkness, the fajr adhan, first of five daily Muslim calls to prayer, comes over speakers at Al Sahaba mosque, the sound drifting east over Meydan Racecourse. As the prayer is sung, exhorting faith, welcoming a new day, one horse, always the last out during the 5 o’clock training slot, walks onto the track. He strides alone down the chute at the head of the backstretch, a slight woman, Amelia Green, on his back. The dark bay, a gorgeous creature, gallops in draw reins to help Green keep his head down, keep control. Around the clubhouse turn they go at a modest, deliberate tempo, slowly running down the backstretch, almost to a vanishing point. Horse and human disappear behind Meydan’s massive video board, pop out at the eighth pole, swing again into the clubhouse bend. This time, the pace faster, the prayer a sonic backdrop, you feel the great energy coiled in the horse’s body, awaiting release. He bounces, as on gentle springs, from stride to stride, tingling skin of anyone who ever has truly admired a Thoroughbred in motion. The horse, the best horse in North America, Life Is Good, clearly wants to go faster. Nearly every morning, except on breeze days, this is forbidden. Even during fast work, Life Is Good learns to keep something in reserve. Like praying several times daily, a routine to instill awareness, concentration, discipline. Saturday, Life Is Good instead of walking to the racetrack from the quarantine barn, rides in a horse van. This time, the darkness will be of early night, and when Life Is Good walks onto the track, with Irad Ortiz, not Green astride, finally he will get to do what he has wanted all week – run as fast as he can. :: Want the best bonus in racing? Get a $250 deposit match, $10 free bet, and free Formulator with DRF Bets. Code: WINNING Life Is Good is a true pleasure to watch train. His races have been just as awe-inspiring. Six of them he’s won by nearly 33 combined lengths, his lone defeat a neck loss to top-class sprinter Jackie’s Warrior going seven furlongs. Life Is Good and Ortiz break from post 1 Saturday and if they leave the gate fluidly, nothing goes amiss, they’ll win the $12 million Dubai World Cup. Life Is Good faces 10 rivals, several legitimate Group 1 dirt horses, and has never raced farther than 1 1/8 miles. The World Cup is contested at 2,000 meters, about 1 1/4 miles, and what Life Is Good, with trainer Todd Pletcher as head instructor, has been taught every morning should combine with his incredible speed to yield success. “I’ve never seen him get tired in a work,” said Elliott Walden, CEO and president of racing operations for WinStar Farm, which owns Life Is Good with the China Horse Club. “He’s always given you confidence he’d go this far. The only question was if he would rate. He’s gotten to the point he’s ready to listen to the rider and do anything.” The locally based horse Hypothetical, winner last out of the Al Maktoum Challenge Round 3, might, if asked, have speed to stick close to Life Is Good. But he breaks from post 10 and his connections this week suggested they’ve little interest fighting Life Is Good for early supremacy. Winning the Breeders’ Cup Dirt Mile last November by almost six lengths and beating 2021 Horse of the Year Knicks Go by more than three Jan. 29 in the Pegasus World Cup, Life Is Good forcefully demonstrated he can lay down withering fractions and still finish. Those races were run over tracks with a homestretch roughly 400 feet shorter than Meydan’s, but the surface here often carries speed. If Ortiz opens a big lead coming off the far turn, no one will run him down. :: Take your handicapping to the next level and play like a pro with free Formulator, DRF's premium data product Hot Rod Charlie will be second choice and his trainer, Doug O’Neill, hopes the 1 1/4 miles provides enough distance to catch Life Is Good. Hot Rod Charlie finished a strong second in the 1 1/2-mile Belmont Stakes. “He very seldom gets tired,” O’Neill said. Hot Rod Charlie has been in Dubai two months, easily winning the Al Maktoum Challenge Round 2 on Feb. 4. He came here following a subpar race Dec. 26, when Express Train, a good horse in his own right, nipped him in the San Antonio Stakes. O’Neil blames himself. “I kept pushing him the same way I had throughout the year. I do think he was running on legs on the tired side,” O’Neill said. Hot Rod Charlie finished fourth in the Breeders’ Cup Classic after diving to the rail, possibly the worst part of the Del Mar surface that day, for his stretch run. He has a measure of speed, not like Life Is Good’s, and O’Neill will put tactics in the hands of jockey Flavien Prat. “He’ll leave there running and play the pace. Prat knows the horse so well,” said O’Neill. Hot Rod Charlie breaks from post 7, Midnight Bourbon from post 8. The two 4-year-olds know each other well. Hot Rod Charlie and Prat were disqualified from first in the Haskell Invitational after crossing in front of Midnight Bourbon, causing him to clip heels and dislodge his jockey. Winning the Pennsylvania Derby, Hot Rod Charlie survived a stewards’ inquiry after pushing Midnight Bourbon several paths off his line. Midnight Bourbon and 5-year-old Country Grammer shipped here after finishing second and third, respectively, in the $20 million Saudi Cup on Feb. 26. Midnight Bourbon, with good early speed himself, has two wins from 15 starts but has been third or better 13 times. Jose Ortiz rides him for the first time since the Champagne Stakes in October 2020. Country Grammer, to be ridden Saturday for the first time by Frankie Dettori, outperformed Midnight Bourbon in the Saudi Cup, where he endured a difficult inside trip and held off everyone but upset winner Emblem Road while making his first start since May. Trained by three-time World Cup winner Bob Baffert, Country Grammer is proven over 1 1/4 miles but can’t regress from a strong effort following an extended layoff. “I don’t see any sign of it,” said assistant trainer Jimmy Barnes. “Sometimes you don’t know until they race.” The four Americans are better than the seven others. Japan-based Chuwa Wizard finished second in a 2021 World Cup packing less power than this one. Should the pace burn out the front-runners, late-running Uruguayan Aero Trem, a closing fifth in the Saudi Cup, could get close. Real World, Magny Cours, and Remorse are in deep. Grocer Jack was a late scratch. First post for this nine-race card is 7:45 a.m. Eastern with the World Cup, the nightcap, scheduled for 12:30. Just before it comes a strong renewal of the $6 million Sheema Classic, before that the $5 million Dubai Turf. The dirt track will be fast, the turf good-to-firm; temperature at first post about 84 degrees falling to 78 by card’s end. The last of the day’s five calls to prayer, isha adhan, comes 40 minutes before the World Cup. Then Life Is Good might provide a religious experience.