DUBAI, United Arab Emirates – Saeed bin Suroor, the trainer of two-time Dubai World Cup winner Thunder Snow, isn’t a huge one for pulling back the curtain on his training operation, but whatever he and his team have done to harness the difficult personality that is Thunder Snow, it has worked. Thunder Snow showed just what can happen when his inner demons bubble to the surface when he bucked and refused to race just after the start of the 2017 Kentucky Derby. Those who’ve been around him during his trips to the U.S. describe a horse who takes a lot of attention. Perhaps no one has done more work with Thunder Snow than the former jockey Kieron Fallon, who rides him during everyday exercise and fast work. Bin Suroor has gone out of his way to credit Fallon for Thunder Snow’s progress, and appearing Sunday morning on the British racing show “Luck on Sunday,” Fallon shed some light on a meticulous regimen that has gotten Thunder Snow’s head in the right place.  Planning and consistency is key, Fallon said. Thunder Snow likes to know exactly what is happening. “He’s like a little child,” Fallon said. A little child with a monster bankroll – more than $16 million after becoming the first two-time World Cup winner in beating Gronkowski by a nose. The winning time for the 2,000-meter World Cup was a tepid 2:03.87, about 2 1/2 seconds slower than Thunder Snow’s clocking in his front-running 2018 World Cup victory. The Meydan main track played slower this year than last, and the World Cup pace was tepid at best – so slow that Gronkowski, who never has been known for displays of speed, made an early bid to push the tempo. It was a strategy that came very close to succeeding for the young rider Oisin Murphy. The Timeform rating for Thunder Snow’s World Cup came back at 125 but his master rating is 128. “I just though the fancied horses would be ridden prominently, and why give them a head start?” Murphy said. “It nearly worked out.” Thunder Snow had an English turf start last year but won’t race in Europe this season, bin Suroor said. He’ll target the Breeders’ Cup Classic, a race in which he finished third last year, with a pre-BC campaign in New York, the details of which have yet to be determined. Gronkowski was making his second Dubai start after being transferred by Phoenix Thoroughbreds to the stables of local trainer Salem bin Ghadayer. There had been talk before the Breeders’ Cup of a Southern Hemisphere turf campaign for Gronkowski, but his improved performance Saturday night could open a return to America. The Phoenix Thoroughbreds account said Sunday on Twitter that “all options are being considered.” American shippers Gunnevera, Pavel, Audible, and Yoshida filled out the third through sixth places, with Gunnevera not only earning the highest placing but running the best race, closing from last into the slow pace. Thunder Snow was one of four World Cup card winners for Godolphin, which expanded its Saturday success to Australia, where Avilius won the Group 1 Tancred Stakes, and England, where Auxerre captured the one-mile Lincoln Heritage Handicap, a precursor to early-season group stakes. Charlie Appleby trains the other three Meydan winners, one of whom has a specific target, another a general plan, and the third an apparently open agenda. Blue Point, who made short work of the Al Quoz Sprint, will be pointed to the King’s Stand Stakes at Royal Ascot, a race he won last year, and won’t start before then. His Timeform Rating was a best-of-the-day 129. Old Persian, who delivered a blistering turn of foot to win the Sheema Classic over 1 1/2 miles, and received a 127 Timeform Rating. He will get his chance in the major European races at or about that trip later this year. But Appleby hesitated to promise that Cross Counter, the winner of the Dubai Gold Cup (124 Timeform) in his first start since winning the Melbourne Cup, would have a campaign encompassing important staying races in England and Ireland. Perhaps the plan will be for a slow summer focused on a return to Australia in the fall. Trainer Jorge Navarro and X Y Jet, the sprinter he trains, got a Dubai Golden Shaheen win (125 Timeform) after two narrow misses, the first in 2016, the second in last year’s renewal. X Y Jet’s easy early lead as well as the Thursday scratch of champion sprinter Roy H surely enhanced his chances, but credit to the 7-year-old and his trainer for maintaining form. Imperial Hint, who finished third, had little chance at the winner the way the race unfolded. He’ll be pointed for the True North at Belmont, trainer Luis Carvajal said. Todd Pletcher had a longer Dubai drought than Navarro, and Saturday’s card also produced his first United Arab Emirates winner as Coal Front  (121 Timeform) caught Heavy Metal just before the finish of the Godolphin Mile. Pletcher told Daily Racing Form’s David Grening shortly after the race that Coal Front would get a freshening at WinStar Farm in Kentucky. Pletcher didn’t rule out a start in the Metropolitan Handicap at Belmont. While Navarro and Pletcher got off the duck, American trainer Peter Miller is the new Dubai poster boy for frustration. He sent Stormy Liberal to a second-place finish in the 2018 Al Quoz and finished second and third in the race Saturday with Belvoir Bay and Stormy Liberal, both of whom ran well enough to win many editions of this race, only to run into a razor-sharp Blue Point. One race after the Al Quoz, Gray Magician finished a close second in the UAE Derby, all that on top of Miller having to scratch Golden Shaheen favorite Roy H on Thursday because of a hoof abscess. Gray Magician was beaten by fellow American shipper Plus Que Parfait (111 Timeform) as U.S. horses ran one-two in a race they’d never won. Plus Que Parfait ran decently in the Lecomte Stakes on Jan. 19 at Fair Grounds but bottomed out there in the Feb. 16 Risen Star. Trainer Brendan Walsh added blinkers for the UAE Derby, and Plus Que Parfait, facing lower-caliber competition, got the job done. Whether or not he truly belongs in the Kentucky Derby is open to debate, but the 100 Derby qualifying points he earned Saturday get him into the race, and Walsh said his connections would likely take their shot. Finally, the Japanese star filly Almond Eye (124 Timeform, 126p master rating) didn’t let anyone down in winning the Dubai Turf as the heavy favorite. What’s certain is that Almond Eye’s long-term goal is the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe, and the possibility of seeing her meet two-time Arc winner Enable as well as Sea of Class, the tough-luck runner-up in the 2018 Arc, is exciting even six months out. How trainer Sakae Kunieda elects to get Almond Eye to the race, however, is uncertain. Kunieda suggested a one-race preparation, with the Arc prep coming somewhere in Europe. His phone will be ringing all summer with racecourse representatives from England and France hoping to lure the filly, now a five-time Group 1 winner.