THE first running of the Pegasus World Cup at Gulfstream Park on Saturday exceeded expectations in attracting California Chrome and Arrogate – two of the best American horses of the modern era – but dipped below them in the event itself, with the former running no sort of race, leaving the latter to dismiss second-rate opposition.

That, Arrogate did with comfort, but his achievement should not be downplayed, for it came in a fast time and after being close to a strong pace throughout. The closing stages were understandably slower than par, which helped the closer Shaman Ghost to get to within five lengths of Juddmonte’s superstar.

Timeform US initially rated Arrogate’s effort at 134 but corrected that to 139 after it became clear there had been a timing fault. That is equal to Arrogate’s previous best and means that he now has three of the top five US figures in the last 12 months. That Arrogate is a very good horse in his backyard has been beyond dispute for some time now. How Arrogate, or many other top American-based horses, would fare if going abroad seems likely to remain an academic question. It is not just Donald J Trump who is dismissive of the world beyond the US’s borders.

With that in mind, there is at least hope that there will be more traffic the other way on future Pegasus Cup days, which could additionally include a valuable turf race.

One condition of this year’s Cup was that any runner not on race-day furosemide (often known as Lasix) would get a 5lb concession, though only one took that option on the day. The organisers of the Pegasus Cup further stated that they “would like eventually to see the race evolve to being free of race-day medication.”

That is an admirable goal. Let us hope that we still have a world left in which it can come to fruition.