IT did not take long for the Dubai Carnival to showcase a performance of apparently lofty merit, with the locally-trained North America running right away with Round One of the Al Maktoum Challenge at Meydan last Thursday.

In beating a quartet of horses rated in the 110s on Timeform by upwards of nine lengths over 1,600 metres, North America might be construed to have run almost off the scale, but it is not quite as simple as that.